Some of its members from her CDU party are proposing to establish the so-called “transit zones” for migrants outside of Germany where refugees can temporarily live while their applications are considered.
The SPD, however, has so far opposed this step, arguing that such zones would be inefficient and would rather resemble detention facilities.
The German bishop supported this point of view, saying that refugees living in such facilities would resemble detainees “in a concentration camp.”
“The way in which refugees would be handled and enclosed there made me – and other people from the Ruhr region – immediately think that it would be something like that,” Overbeck said, cited by thelocal.de.
“If we were to build these zones we would be building walls again,” the bishop added.
The EU is currently facing a major refugee crisis, with hundreds of thousands of migrants fleeing the Middle East and African countries and entering the European continent through various routes.
Germany has been struggling to resolve the crisis for many months, but has achieved little success so far.
