Angela Merkel announces new bid to tackle migration alongside Austria’s anti-immigration chancellor as she continues to turn away from her open-door policy in wake of protests
- German chancellor met Sebastian Kurz in Berlin ahead of this week’s EU summit
- They agreed to work with African countries and beef up Europe’s border agency
- Merkel has faced a fierce backlash since she opened Germany’s doors in 2015
Angela Merkel has said she will work with her Austrian counterpart Sebastian Kurz to secure Europe’s borders, in her latest move away from the open-door policy which has sparked a wave of protests in Germany.
The German chancellor met Mr Kurz in Berlin ahead of a crunch EU summit on migration later this week.
Mrs Merkel, who has faced a backlash since she allowed a million refugees into Germany in 2015, agreed to work with African countries to stop the flow of migrants.
She and Mr Kurz also welcomed the European Commission’s plans to increase the staff of Europe’s border agency to 10,000 people by 2020, DW reported.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel, left, and the Chancellor of Austria, Sebastian Kurz, right, shake hands before a meeting at the chancellery in Berlin yesterday
Merkel told reporters in Berlin as she and Kurz prepared to sit down for their one-to-one talks that ‘migration is, of course, a very important issue.’
They were also expected to discuss Brexit. ‘We have the same view that we must do all we can to avoid a hard Brexit,’ Kurz said in a statement before the meeting.
The German chancellor opened Germany’s doors to more than a million refugees fleeing North Africa in the Middle East at the peak of Europe’s refugee crisis in 2015.
Mr Kurz, 32, has taken a hard-line stance on immigration since he came to power last year after striking a deal with the right-wing Freedom Party.
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The two clashed in June when Mr Kurz resisted German plans to share migrants out between EU countries.
Mrs Merkel said she would not allow EU countries to say that ‘we don’t want to participate in European solidarity’.
Austria has sided with countries such as Hungary and Italy – under its new government and interior minister Matteo Salvini – who have pushed to tighten Europe’s borders.
Mrs Merkel’s immigration policy has sparked a fierce backlash in Germany, as the anti-immigrant Alternative for Germany (AfD) party made historic gains at last year’s election.
Mrs Merkel and Mr Kurz give a press conference in Berlin yesterday. They agreed to tighten Europe’s borders ahead of a two-day summit of EU leaders later this week
The issue has flared up again in recent weeks after a German man was allegedly stabbed to death by two Iraqi and Syrian migrants.
His death prompted major protests in Chemnitz, in former East Germany, the part of the country where the AfD is strongest.
Mrs Merkel’s interior minister Horst Seehofer has pushed for a tougher immigration policy to prevent the ruling CDU/CSU being outflanked by the AfD.
The Austrian leader next travels to Paris for talks with French President Emmanuel Macron.
He and Mrs Merkel are set to join other national leaders at the two-day summit starting on Wednesday in Salzburg, Austria.
The border agency, Frontex, said last week the number of people crossing the entire Mediterranean had fallen by 40 per cent from last year.
However the number of migrants crossing the western Mediterranean into Spain more than doubled in the first eight months of this year.
The divergence was due to a sharp drop in people leaving strife-torn Libya for Italy, a main migrant route to Europe in recent years.
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