Migrants in Germany who have been denied asylum should be deported to war zones such as Afghanistan, Bavaria’s interior minister, Joachim Herrmann, has said, in a further sign of growing differences between Angela Merkel and her conservative allies over the refugee crisis.



The conservative Christian Social Union (CSU) to which Herrmann belongs has stepped up its criticism of Merkel after her Christian Democrats (CDU) performed poorly in regional elections in her own constituency last weekend.

The anti-immigrant Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) make impressive gains in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, and the CSU, a sister party to the CDU, is holding Merkel responsible for her party coming third.

Herrmann told the tabloid Bild he supported the idea of deporting people whose asylum applications had been declined to areas of Afghanistan and other war-torn regions, in direct contrast to government policy.

“It must be possible to carry out deportations to crisis regions such as northern Afghanistan where the German army has been working for peace and freedom for years,” he said.

In response to data showing that 80% of refugees apprehended by police had no passport, he called for those who arrived at the German border to be held in transit zones until their identities could be ascertained.

“Someone whose identity is not sufficiently clear should not be allowed to roam around Germany. Those who arrive in Germany without papers or cannot prove their identity must be held at the German border and, if applicable, deported,” he added.

The CSU will publish a refugee strategy paper at the weekend, proposing a raft of measures that would considerably tighten the government’s refugee policy.

Among the demands is an upper limit of 200,000 asylum seekers accepted into Germany each year, and for no one to be allowed into Germany before their right to asylum has been established.

In addition the paper will call for a ban on dual citizenship and for the burqa and niqab to be made illegal. “Whoever doesn’t want to do without a burqa or niqab can find another country to live in,” the party says in the document, in which it claims it is defending “German values” against multiculturalism.

Migrants walk to a train at the central railway station in Passau, Germany. Photograph: Christof Stache/AFP/Getty Images

The CSU has a presence only in the southern state of Bavaria, where it is the dominant political force. It is allied with the CDU at a federal level.

Merkel, who is due to stand for re-election next autumn, is dependent on the CSU for support. So far the CSU head, Horst Seehofer, has refused to be drawn on whether he will endorse Merkel. The party’s regional election campaign focused on its criticism of Merkel’s refugee policy.

Germany expects 300,000 refugees to arrive in 2016, a considerable drop from the 1.1 million who arrived last year.

According to a report by the Kiel Institute for World Economy released this week, it will spend €20bn (£17bn) on refugees this year, about 1.4% of the national budget.

In a sign of a widening rift between European states over how to deal with the refugee crisis, this week the CSU put pressure on Vienna to take back refugees who had arrived in Germany – mostly Bavaria – via Austria, after Austria announced it was preparing to take Hungary to the European court of justice for its refusal to allow the return of refugees who had arrived in Austria from Hungary. Hungary has argued that it is not prepared to do so, because it in turn cannot return refugees to Greece because of the difficult circumstances there.

Andreas Scheuer, the general secretary of the CSU, said he welcomed Austria’s decision. “Because I see with my own eyes the number of buses arriving from Austria to the German border, I welcome Vienna’s call to want to bring law and order back to Europe once again,” he told the Passauer Neue Presse.