Saxony seeks to speed up deportations for some migrants

Saxony Premier Stanislaw Tillich told regional public broadcaster MDR on Tuesday that his state's plans to set up a special facility for asylum seekers facing deportation were in keeping with a directive from the federal government.

"The federal government has said that it plans to set up four such facilities nationwide, while at the same time calling on the states to the same at state level - we will comply," Tillich said, without telling where or when Saxony planned to do so.

Tillich said gathering migrants with no chance of being allowed to stay in the country in central locations would allow the government to deport those who don't meet the criteria for being granted asylum in Germany more swiftly.

Safe countries of origin

Many such migrants have come from places in the Balkans like Serbia, Bosnia or Macedonia, which the German government declared last year to be safe countries of origin. In a newspaper interview on Tuesday, a prominent member of Chancellor Angela Merkel's Christian Democrats called on the government to declare two more Balkan countries "safe," namely Kosovo and Montenegro.

With his government's plan to set up the special camp, Tillich was following the lead of the southern state of Bavaria, which earlier announced a plan to set up such a facility by September to temporarily house around 1,500 migrants near the town of Ingolstadt.

This comes as the German authorities are under increasing pressure as they struggle to cope with a growing influx of migrants from conflict zones and poverty in the Middle East and Africa.

pfd/jil (EPD, dpa)