The leaders of Germany's 16 federal states are jointly calling on the German government to develop concrete potential models for outsourcing asylum procedures to countries outside the European Union.
The state premiers agreed on a migration position paper ahead of their meeting with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz on Thursday, at which migration and asylum policy were expected to be the dominant topics.
The paper urges Scholz's government to "develop concrete models for the implementation of asylum procedures in transit and third countries and, in particular, to address the necessary changes in EU regulation and national asylum law."
Dpa learned of the details from participants at the meeting, and the leaders of the states of Hesse and Lower Saxony later confirmed the agreement at a press conference.
Politicians from the conservative CDU/CSU in particular have been pushing for a third-country deal, modelled on Italy's draft agreement with Albania to house and process asylum-seeking migrants.
