Germany may use military planes to speed up deportations

Germany may use army transport planes to send asylum seekers who have had their applications rejected to their home countries in an attempt to speed up deportations and ease a mounting refugee crisis, Bild daily reported on Wednesday.

Chancellor Angela Merkel's government has repeatedly said it wants to speed up both the processing of asylum applications and deportations. Merkel is under growing pressure over her handling of the crisis with some in her own conservative party wanting to impose upper limits on migrants.

Citing regional government sources, Bild said that the federal and 16 state governments were considering accelerating asylum processing, not telling individuals in advance that they would be deported and using the army to help.

A German government source said no action plan had been agreed and a range of options were on the table.

Bild reported that the number of new asylum applications far outnumbered deportations. By the end of September, 193,500 people were registered as having no valid reason to claim asylum, the newspaper said.

From the start of the year to August, Germany's states had deported 11,522 people, compared with 10,884 people in the whole of last year, Bild said.

Government figures show that while many of those arriving in Germany are fleeing war in the Middle East, at least a third are economic migrants from Balkans countries who can have little hope of staying legally.

An Allensbach poll published on Wednesday showed that 54 percent of those asked were very worried about the refugee situation in Germany, up from 40 percent in August.