8 February 2017, 11:08 GMT
MOSCOW (Sputnik) — In 2016, migration authorities rejected almost 300,000 out of 700,000 asylum applications, the chancellor’s chief of staff said.
"Last year, we sent more than 80,000 people with rejected asylum claims back to their home countries. It is a record and their number will rise," Altmaier told the outlet on Saturday.
"We plan to quickly deport these people unless we want to undermine the credibility of the rule of law. In particular, criminals and people who pose a threat to our security system will have to leave our borders soon," he said.
Altmaier said Germany and Tunisia had made progress in speeding up deportations of Tunisian nationals who had been denied asylum. Efforts are underway to improve deportation process of Moroccans, Afghans and Algerians who do not have valid identity documents.
