Migrant crisis: Germany tightens Balkan asylum laws

Germany’s cabinet has approved a new asylum law aimed at reducing the number of migrants arriving from the Balkans. The change, which will need parliamentary approval, would prevent people from Kosovo, Montenegro and Albania from seeking asylum in Germany. The UN refugee agency says more than 514,000 people have crossed the Mediterranean into Europe this […]

Germany’s cabinet has approved a new asylum law aimed at reducing the number of migrants arriving from the Balkans.
The change, which will need parliamentary approval, would prevent people from Kosovo, Montenegro and Albania from seeking asylum in Germany.
The UN refugee agency says more than 514,000 people have crossed the Mediterranean into Europe this year.
The majority have come via Greece and almost 3,000 people have died on the journey or are missing, it says.
Germany alone expects between 800,000 and one million people to seek asylum in 2015, more than four times the number last year.
Although the largest number are from Syria, almost 40% of asylum applications have come from countries in the Western Balkans, including Kosovo, Albania and Serbia.
All EU countries have their own lists of “safe countries”, where asylum seekers can be returned quickly provided their individual applications are rejected, and member states are soon expected to agree a common list that includes Kosovo, Albania and Serbia.