GERMANY

Bavaria calls for control over its own borders

The Bavarian interior minister has said the southern German state should be able to police its own borders. His words come as local politicians seek ways to mitigate the influx of refugees coming from the east.

Joachim Herrmann said Bavaria should take control of its own borders, as thousands of desperate refugees continue to flood into the southern German state every day.

In an interview with the German weekly newspaper "Welt am Sonntag," Bavaria's interior minister blamed personnel shortages for the federal government's inability to stem the flow of migrants across the border. For that reason, he said, Bavaria's regional government should take the reins.

"Here we would like to play an active role and control the borders," Herrmann told the newspaper, adding he had "no understanding" why the federal government was opposed to the idea.

4,000 refugees a day

According to Herrmann, a member of the sister party to Chancellor Angela Merkel's Christian Democratic Union (CDU), Bavaria needs only approval from Berlin before it could start enforcing the borders itself. He insisted it was "purely a political decision" by Merkel's government not to offer it.

As many as 4,000 refugees cross the border into Bavaria every day, according to Herrmann. He said the federal government must work with the Bavarians to ensure the number is reduced to an average of at least 1,000 refugees per day.

"We would be able to accommodate and integrate a good 350,000 refugees in 2016. But not over a million," he said.