German Chancellor Angela Merkel has been warned public support is being “destroyed” by the fact her government has so far failed to deport half a million rejected asylum seekers.

Hans-Peter Friedrich, an MP for the Bavarian Christian Social Union, Mrs. Merkel’s sister party, said the German people were losing confidence in the government because so many asylum seekers were able to “dance around the state”.

Meanwhile, Rainer Wendt, head of the federal police trade union, warned: “There is a deportation prevention industry, which must be changed urgently.”

Figures published by the German parliament on Monday showed a total of 556,499 failed asylum seekers have stayed on in the country, with four in five residing in the country for more than six years, thus granting them extra rights.

The Times reports around half are officially stateless, have medical conditions, or would not be accepted back into their home country, giving them a right to stay indefinitely. Others simply stayed in illegally or claimed to have no identity papers.

Of the half a million failed asylum seekers, 77,000 are from Turkey, 68,000 from Kosovo, 50,000 from Serbia, and 33,000 from Afghanistan.

“Allowing rejected asylum seekers to dance around the state like this is destroying the confidence of citizens in the capacity of the state to act,” said Mr. Friedrich, who also previously served as interior minister.

Breitbart London reported last month on figures that showed some 99 per cent of migrants granted asylum in Germany were allowed to stay permanently.

An investigation by Die Welt found that although asylum is granted for a period of three years under the Geneva Convention, nearly all German migrants granted asylum are allowed to stay indefinitely.

Despite an attempt to tighten up residency permits last year, leave the stay is granted much more quickly in Germany than in other European Union states.