Germany’s AfD demands deportation of 1M rejected asylum seekers

Alice Weidel, co-leader of Germany’s right-wing Alternative for Germany (AfD), demanded in parliament on Wednesday that authorities deport more than one million refugees whose asylum claims have been rejected, citing her party’s recent election victory in Saxony-Anhalt as a mandate for radical immigration curbs. Speaking during a heated session in Berlin, Weidel said voters had delivered a landslide win for the AfD on Sunday by backing a hardline stance against mass immigration.

"You declare the migration crisis over. Yet every year hundreds of thousands of migrants enter the country through the asylum back door, most from Muslim tribal cultures," Weidel said. She continued: "And in Germany more than one million refugees live whose asylum applications have been rejected more than once. What are these people still doing in this country? They belong deported."

Merz rejects 'remigration' as ethnic cleansing

Chancellor Friedrich Merz rejected Weidel’s account as detached from reality and defended the contribution of migrants to the German economy. "If those migrants who work in Germany have to leave the country because of your ‘remigration’ plans, then the skilled-trades sector in Germany can no longer function," Merz said. "Then not a single care home will work anymore, then not a single hospital in Germany will work anymore, then not a single restaurant will be able to run in Germany."

Merz accused the AfD of stoking fear and dividing society, stating that the party’s agenda amounted to "nothing other than ethnic cleansing by skin color and origin — nothing else." He distinguished between immigrants who work and contribute to Germany and foreigners without residence status who should be returned, defending the coalition’s efforts to curb irregular migration through legal channels.

Crime allegations and economic warnings

Weidel alleged during the debate that mass migration has made streets less safe and crime more prevalent, citing sexual and violent offenses, knife attacks, and disorder in public spaces. She claimed that some foreign groups harbor hatred toward Christians, Germans, and Germany, and noted that roughly three-quarters of recipients of Germany’s basic income support for jobseekers were foreigners or had a migrant background.

The parliamentary clash came days after the AfD secured a decisive victory in the eastern state of Saxony-Anhalt, where the party campaigned heavily on anti-immigration rhetoric. Merz’s Christian Democratic Union leads a coalition government that has sought to tighten asylum rules while maintaining that deportations must follow legal procedures and respect human rights obligations.