Germany deported 80,000 migrants last year: Official

‘A top German official says Berlin has deported a record 80,000 refugees denied asylum last year and will set another record high in deportations in 2017.
Peter Altmaier, Chancellor Angela Merkel’s chief of staff, told Bild am Sonntag newspaper on Sunday that nearly half of the 700,000 asylum requests made in 2016 had been rejected. The official also stressed that the figure would rise again this year.
“We sent home 80,000 last year whose asylum applications were rejected – that’s a record,” Altmaier said, adding, “And the number will rise again further. There were some 700,000 asylum applications in 2016 and nearly 300,000 were rejected. We’ll be sending these people home quickly because if we don’t it’ll damage our credibility as a state based on the rule of law.”‘
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