Scholz pressured to tighten immigration laws

Germany's Chancellor Olaf Scholz is coming under pressure to go through with pledges to tighten the country's immigration laws after newly published figures from the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees showed a 51 percent rise in asylum applications in 2023.

In an interview with Der Spiegel newspaper in October, when questioned on immigration, Scholz announced a variety of measures to make it harder to enter the country, and also vowed to get tougher on deporting people with no right to stay in the country.

"On the one hand, there is the immigration of workers that we need. And there are those who are seeking asylum because they are the targets of political oppression," he said. "On the other hand, though, that means that all those who don't belong to one of those groups cannot stay. That is why we are limiting irregular migration to Germany. Too many people are coming."