Roundup: Germany's ruling coalition agrees on new steps to accelerate asylum

Party leaders of Germany's ruling coalition have agreed on Thursday on plans to establish special registration centers for refugees in Germany, with an aim to speed up asylum procedures for those who have little chance to get asylum.

The plan was announced at a joint press conference by German Chancellor Angela Merkel as well as coalition party heads Sigmar Gabriel and Horst Seehofer after their summit meeting over refugees on Thursday afternoon, ending a coalition internal dispute lasting several weeks.

Merkel, Gabriel and Seehofer have already met on Sunday to discuss the current refugee situation, but failed to hammer out a compromise deal after Gabriel, head of the center-left Social Democratic Party (SPD), dismissed the idea of setting up so-called transit zones on German borders to filter out migrants who have little chance of gaining asylum, deepening a rift within Merkel's ruling coalition.

Merkel's conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and its Bavarian sister party Christian Social Union (CSU), led by Seehofer, hoped to use the transit zones - proposed border holding camps - to process asylum more efficiently, while the SPD criticized the transit zones as "giant prisons."

Instead of transit zones, the three party leaders have agreed on Thursday on the plan to set up three to five special reception centers across Germany. At least two of them are set to be established in the southern German state of Bavaria, which has been receiving the bulk of the refugees arriving via the Balkans and Austria.

Asylum applications of people from safe countries of origin, such as the Balkans, will be processed in accelerated procedures in the special centers. The accelerated process also applies for refugees with a re-entry ban as well as people who make follow-up applications or have no valid identity documents.

Under the plan, asylum seekers are required to follow a residency rule, meaning they are basically not allowed to leave the district where the registration centers are located in. Otherwise, their benefits may get cancelled.

According to the new agreement, refugees and asylum seekers will get a unified identity in the future. They can only receive their benefits by showing this document. In addition, a database will be set up so that different government agencies could get a better overview of the new arrivals.

Following her meeting with coalition partners, Merkel has also held talks with the heads of federal states, focusing on the question how asylum procedures and repatriations could be accelerated and implemented more effectively.

Germany has become a magnet for refugees and economic migrants and is bracing for an unprecedented influx of 800,000 asylum seekers this year as Europe grapples with its biggest migrant crisis since the Second World War.

Merkel has been under intense pressure to show she is managing the current refugee crisis amid mounting complaints from municipalities in Germany that they are unable to cope with the refugee influx, particular as winter approaches.

In order to better deal with the issue, the German government and state authorities had agreed on an asylum package during their last meeting at the end of September.

The plans include increasing the federal budget and manpower resources for taking in refugees. Three Balkan states -- Kosovo, Albania and Montenegro -- were added to the list of safe countries of origin.

In addition, the German government will further promote social housing and accelerate the construction of refugee shelters, in a bid to meet the growing need for refugee homes.

Key regulations of the asylum package have been in force since Oct. 24 after approval by the German parliament. Endit