Spotlight: European countries tighten asylum rules as refugee waves continue

European countries led by Germany have tightened asylum rules amid continuing refugee waves in the new year that are having an impact on the local societies.

GERMAN DEAL

Leaders of Germany's ruling coalition struck a compromise on changes to asylum laws on Thursday, said German Deputy Chancellor Sigmar Gabriel.

According to the deal, refugees who are not facing "immediate personal persecution" will not be allowed to bring relatives to join them for two years.

The coalition also plans to declare Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia safe countries of origin, making it easier to send migrants back to those countries, Gabriel said.

The package of measures was first tentatively agreed in early November but has been held up since then as German Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservatives and Gabiel's center-left Social Democrats squabbled over who should initially be blocked from bringing relatives to Germany.

Merkel has come under increased pressure in recent months to reverse her open-arms policy to those asylum seekers, including opposition from within her own conservative camp.

A poll conducted by the weekly magazine Focus published Friday showed that about 40 percent of Germans think Merkel should resign as a result of her handling of the refugee crisis.

Experts say that the coalition government decided to adopt tougher measures for the fear that it would lose support in the upcoming regional elections.

Earlier this week, the Cabinet approved measures that would make it easier to deport foreign criminals, a separate package that ministers drew up amid outrage over sexual assaults on New Year's Eve in Cologne blamed largely on foreigners.

The inflow of refugees in the country has fallen from thousands to hundreds a day in recent weeks amid harsh winter conditions.

"We must seize the window of opportunity that has opened," said Peter Altmaier, Merkel's migrant policy coordinator. "Our goal must be for refugee numbers not to rise again after the end of the winter storms but for them to keep going down."

OTHER TOUGHER MEASURES

Other European countries also began to adopt tougher measures amid the biggest migrant waves since World War II.

Sweden is planning to deport up to 80,000 asylum seekers over the next few years, Interior Minister Anders Ygeman said Thursday.

Swedish authorities, which received some 163,000 asylum applications in 2015, were planning to charter jets for the specific purpose of sending migrants back to their home countries, the minister said.

The Finnish government said Thursday that about 60 percent of the approximately 32,000 asylum seekers who arrived in Finland last year are expected to receive a negative decision.

The Danish Parliament on Tuesday passed a controversial bill that tightens rules on asylum applications and empowers the authorities to confiscate the valuables of asylum seekers to finance their stay in the country.

Austria's Council of Ministers on Tuesday proposed tougher laws to regulate the approval of asylum seeker status, hoping to limit the country's intake of asylum seekers in 2016 to its planned figure of 37,500.

The proposed laws will affect all asylum cases that have been approved since mid-November 2015, with each individual case to come under review after three years to determine whether the protection granted by Austria is still warranted.

LONG-TERM INTEGRATION

Since the beginning of the year, some 55,528 refugees and migrants have entered Europe by way of the Mediterranean Sea, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) reported Friday.

Representing close to 2,000 refugee and migrant arrivals in Europe per day, IOM figures show that 244 people lost their lives attempting to reach European shores in the first 28 days of January.

A total of 218 fatalities were recorded on the Eastern Mediterranean route separating Turkey and Greece, while 26 people lost their lives on the central Mediterranean passage linking North Africa and Italy.

For those who managed to arrive and stay in Europe, they are struggling to integrate themselves into local society and avoid cultural clashes.

Take Germany for instance. How to integrate refugees has become one of the biggest challenges the country has faced since its reunification.

Roughly 1.1 million asylum seekers entered Germany in 2015. A similar amount could arrive this year.

Economists said the influx of refugees would benefit the German economy in the short term due to consumption and government spending on accommodating the newcomers. From a long-term perspective, however, a successful integration is necessary if Germany wants to turn the crisis into an opportunity. Endi