Germany hopes for EU deal on asylum seekers

Germany's interior minister is hoping the European Union can reach a bloc-wide agreement on sending failed asylum seekers who cannot go home to safe countries near their original homelands.

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Chancellor Friedrich Merz's conservatives won February's national election on a promise to bring down immigration levels, which opinion polls showed many voters regarded as being out of control, although numbers have been falling for over a year.

In an interview with the Welt am Sonntag newspaper published yesterday, Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt said the approach of using third countries could work only if there was a Europe-wide consensus.