Pressure grows on Merkel to tighten refugee policies

BERLIN – Pressure is growing on Chancellor Angela Merkel from the right wing of her conservative bloc to tighten Germany's refugee policies and allow some migrants to be turned away at the borders.

Merkel has insisted that she wants a European solution to the issue rather than one that works for only some countries. Interior Minister Horst Seehofer, who heads Merkel's Bavarian-only sister party, wants to see refugees already registered in other European countries turned away.

Top-selling Bild newspaper reported Thursday that a three-hour crisis meeting ended just before midnight Wednesday without a resolution, with Seehofer insisting that if Merkel adopted his solution for Germany, it would strengthen her hand in negotiating at a European level.

Merkel's party would not comment on the meeting.

More talks within the party are expected Thursday.