Chairman of the Bavarian Christian Democrats (CSU) Horst Seehofer at the launch of the CDU/CSU election policy program on July 3, 2017 in Berlin, Germany | Sean Gallup/Getty Images Bavarian leader calls migrant family reunification ‘mistake’ ‘Anyone who has brought his family to Germany will never return to his home country,’ Horst Seehofer said.

Refugee family reunification should be permanently suspended, Bavaria’s conservative Prime Minister Horst Seehofer told Bild in an interview published Tuesday night.

“Family reunification for migrants, who can only stay temporarily in the country, is a mistake. Anyone who has brought his family to Germany will never return to his home country,” Seehofer said.

Seehofer, the chairman of the CSU, the Bavarian sister party of Chancellor Angela Merkel's Christian Democrat Union (CDU), also said he was concerned about the rise of ghettos in Germany as a result of the large number of migrants in the country.

“We have to pay attention to social tensions in the coming years," he said. "Preventing ghettos is one of the most important tasks. Bavaria is already acting accordingly."

Seehofer said that if a new refugee influx similar to the one in 2015 occurred, German borders would remain closed.

"This is by no means possible," he said when asked whether Germany would again open its borders to welcome migrants, as Merkel did in 2015. "The federal government will not do this either," he added.

His comments come ahead of the September 24 federal election.