Expand / Collapse search
Watch TV
Menu

This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. ©2024 FOX News Network, LLC. All rights reserved. Quotes displayed in real-time or delayed by at least 15 minutes. Market data provided by Factset. Powered and implemented by FactSet Digital Solutions. Legal Statement. Mutual Fund and ETF data provided by Refinitiv Lipper.

Europe

The Latest: Germany wants 3 N. African nations declared safe

Associated Press
Published | Updated
  • ed21f1de-
    Image 1 of 3

    A man walk among railway tracks at a makeshift refugee camp of the northern Greek border point of Idomeni, Greece, on Thursday, May 12, 2016. About 54,000 people are currently stranded in Greece, after the European Union and Turkey reached a deal designed to stem the flow of refugees into Europe’s prosperous heartland. (AP Photo/Petros Giannakouris) (The Associated Press)

  • 1a927d38-
    Image 2 of 3

    Migrants and refugees who were camped in Idomeni walk through fields in their attempt to cross the Greek- Macedonian border near the village of Evzoni, on Thursday, May 12, 2016. About 54,000 refugees and other migrants are stuck in Greece, through which more than a million people passed since early 2015. (AP Photo/Petros Giannakouris) (The Associated Press)

  • 75d1cd75-
    Image 3 of 3

    Belgium's Foreign Minister Didier Reynders, right, and Turkey's EU Affairs Minister Volkan Bozkir address the media after a meeting at the Egmont Palace in Brussels on Thursday May 12, 2016. (AP Photo/Geert Vanden Wijngaert) (The Associated Press)

BRUSSELS – The Latest on the flow of migrants into Europe (all times local):

10:30 a.m.

German lawmakers have approved a plan to declare Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia "safe countries of origin," a move aimed at making it easier to send asylum-seekers from the three North African nations home quickly and deterring others from coming.

Parliament's lower house voted 424-143 Friday to back the measure, with three lawmakers abstaining. It still requires approval from the upper house, which represents Germany's 16 states.

Germany last year declared several Balkan nations whose citizens are barely ever granted asylum safe countries. That effectively reverses the burden of proof, with a country assumed to be safe unless an asylum applicant can prove persecution in his or her case.

Germany registered nearly 1.1 million people as asylum-seekers in 2015 and is keen to see far lower numbers this year.

___

10 a.m.

Turkish European Affairs Minister Volkan Bozkir is holding talks with senior European Union officials to try to end an impasse over part of the EU's migrant deal with Turkey.

Bozkir meets Friday with the EU's enlargement commissioner and foreign policy chief amid a standoff over whether Turkey should modify its anti-terror laws to secure visa-free travel in Europe for its citizens.

Bozkir said Thursday that "if there is a difficulty in this particular element then perhaps all of the elements of the package we have discussed and decided in the last months will be at stake."

The visa waiver is an incentive — along with up to 6 billion euros ($6.8 billion) and fast-track EU membership talks — for Turkey to stop migrants reaching Europe and take back thousands more.