German interior minister rejects cap for migrants

German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser has rejected Bavarian Premier Markus Söder's proposal for an annual cap on refugees in Germany, reported dpa.

"Upper limits simply cannot be adhered to because we have European law, international law, we cannot reduce the individual right to asylum alone," Faeser said on German public broadcaster ARD on Sunday evening.

"We are bound by the Geneva Refugee Convention, by the European Convention on Human Rights," she said.

Söder, who is also leader of the Bavarian conservative Christian Social Union (CSU) party, called on Chancellor Olaf Scholz to make the issue of migration a top priority.

"The chancellor, who has been silent for weeks, should now get to work on the issue. The chancellor must now also show leadership here, and by the way, he must also convince [his coalition partner] the Greens," Söder demanded.

Chancellor Scholz, a Social Democrat (SPD), is in coalition with the Greens and the pro-business Free Democrats (FDP).

Faeser said, "The only thing that will really help is a European solution."

German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock on Monday reiterated the need for a European solution in refugee policy.

The situation in the municipalities in Germany is absolutely tense, Baerbock said on Deutschlandfunk public radio on Monday morning. That is why she and Faeser are working hard so that Europe finally comes to "common regulations in asylum and refugee policy."

Clear rules must be created at the external borders "so that people are finally distributed in Europe in an orderly manner," she said. She referred to fast procedures at the external borders and quick repatriations.

Söder had brought up the idea of an "integration limit" of about 200,000 refugees. On the same TV programme as Faeser, he confirmed that the figure of 200,000 was a guideline "within which integration in [Germany] can still succeed."

Söder stressed that he was not in favour of abolishing individual asylum. "We need a turn towards a sustainable migration policy," he said.

Friedrich Merz, the leader of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), the CSU's sister party, also called for a limit to the number of refugees that come to Germany.

"We have to solve this problem, otherwise we will be in over our heads," he told the Monday edition of the Augsburger Allgemeine newspaper.

"If we don't want to overstretch the population's willingness to help and our country's ability to integrate, we have to quickly reduce the numbers of refugees coming to Germany."

German municipalities have recently expressed concerns regarding overcrowding. By the end of August, the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees had registered more than 204,000 initial applications for asylum, a 77% increase compared to the same period of last year.

In addition, because of the Russian war, more than 1 million people from Ukraine, who do not have to apply for asylum, sought protection in Germany.