Merkel: ‘national effort’ to ensure rejected migrants leave

BERLIN – Chancellor Angela Merkel says Germany needs to make a “national effort” to ensure that migrants who are refused asylum leave the country.

Germany has seen a steep decline this year in the number of asylum-seekers arriving after 890,000 came last year. The government says some 213,000 newcomers arrived in this year’s first nine months.

However, officials have long said that Germany needs to do more to ensure that rejected asylum-seekers leave. Some 60,000 left or were deported between January and September.

Merkel told a conference of her conservative bloc’s youth wing in Paderborn on Saturday: “We need a national effort to return those who are rejected — that is undisputed and we are working on that at present with great vigour.”