Refugees theme of campaign and weapon for far right parties

The future of the 1.3 million refugees in Germany is the dominant subject of the campaign leading up to the general elections of September 24. They began arriving in the middle of 2015 when Angela Merkel opened the frontiers for humanitarian reasons and almost a third now await deportation.

It is not just about how the 750,000 successful asylum seekers will be integrated, it is about how and when the other half a million rejected applicants will be expelled.

The number of expulsions is very low - some 16,000 per year. Each time a group of Afghans is repatriated there are demonstrations of solidarity at the airports, where support groups protest that Afghanistan is not a safe country. Among the half a million rejected applicants subject to repatriation, there is a large number of people who cannot return to their country either because the authorities there will not collaborate or because it would put them in danger.

And then there are those considered dangerous, either because they have committed serious crimes or are part of the Islamic terrorism network.

All in all, the German authorities continue to be overwhelmed, and the far right parties are taking this opportunity to claim it is Chancellor Merkel who is to blame for the crisis.