German Cabinet approves legislation meant to ease deportations of rejected asylum-seekers

BERLIN (AP) — The German Cabinet has approved legislation that is intended to ease deportations of unsuccessful asylum-seekers. The draft legislation approved on Wednesday would need parliamentary approval to take effect. It foresees raising the maximum length of pre-deportation custody from 10 days to 28 and facilitating deportations of people who are members of criminal organizations. It also would authorize residential searches for documentation that enables officials to firmly establish a person’s identity. Germany’s shelters for migrants and refugees have been filling up as significant numbers of asylum-seekers add to more than 1 million Ukrainians who have arrived during Russia’s war in their homeland. Chancellor Olaf Scholz is seeking to defuse migration as a political problem.