A member of German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union (CDU) has said illegal migrants such as Christmas market attack suspect Anis Amri play the German asylum system and should not have been in the country in the first place.

MP for Berlin and CDU member Dr. Philipp Lengsfeld told BBC Radio 4’s Today audience that men like Amri “fits a profile” that sceptics of Merkel’s Willkommenskulture (‘welcome culture’) have been discussing for some time.

“They are young guys who have all sorts of plans but who are not from civil war areas. This guy has come to Lampedusa, burnt down a camp, has been sentenced to four years, escaped Italian authorities, is wanted around Europe, around Germany, playing our system and our officials,” said Dr. Lengsfeld.

He then stated that following revelations of the suspect’s background that it was right to review Germany’s asylum policies – a suggestion backed by Merkel’s coalition partner and Bavarian Christian Social Union (CSU) leader Horst Seehofer.

Affirming that Amri should not have been in the country in the first place, Dr. Lengsfeld said: “These types of people are deliberately hiding their identity, their country of origin, their age, their status, and are in no need of shelter as asylum seekers in Germany.

“They should not be in the country, they should not be allowed into the country and we should be discussing these border transition zones for quite some time and they have been blocked by the left side of the aisle.”

“It is not acceptable that we call everybody refugees,” the Berlin politician added.

Dr. Lengsfeld is a member of the ‘Berlin Circle’ – a traditionalist group within Merkel’s CDU which wants to return the party to its conservative roots and roll back Merkel’s migrant policy.

When asked by presenter John Humphrys whether it was reasonable to expect that those under the pressure of fleeing persecution would be able to collect their identification papers, the CDU politician replied: “Look at this individual and others who roam our parks. His past time was dealing drugs in Berlin and North-Rhine Westphalia. This is not a guy – a family – being bombed out of Aleppo.

“It is so obvious I don’t need a police agency to come to that determination.”