German federal states asked Chancellor Olaf Scholz's government to provide information on whether asylum requests can be carried out by "transit countries or third parties", like Italy's Albania plan, by June 20.
Germany's federal states set a deadline for Chancellor Scholz's government to provide more information on whether the country can outsource its asylum process to another country like Italy (to Albania).
Without making any specific reference to either case, the regional leaders stipulated Scholz must provide this information by June 20, when the next Conference of the Regional Presidents will take place.
News of this request was first published on the website of the German daily Handelsblatt.
At this point, Scholz's government is still in the process of vetting whether such policies can be implemented without violating principles of the Geneva Convention on Refugees and the European Convention for Human Rights.
Italian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Antonio Tajani, appears to believe this is possible.
He said on March 6: "The Italian-Albanian agreement is a model that, in my opinion, could be followed by others."
The comments were made to reporters while discussing the migration issue and the use of safe third countries for the asylum seekers.