German Bundestag move to tighten asylum law for four nationalities

Asylum seekers from Algeria, Georgia, Morocco and Tunisia would have a harder time claiming the right to remain in Germany under a new law approved in the Bundestag last Friday. The measure was approved 509-138, with multiple abstentions. Support came from the ruling coalition and some opposition parties.

Only members of the Green Party and The Left party voting against. The bill still needs to be voted on in the upper house, the Bundesrat.

Helge Lindh, a member of the centre-left Social Democrats, a key part of the governing coalition, said the legislation was important, so as to not give "false hope" for people hoping to make it to Germany. Passing the measure was an "expression of healthy pragmatism," he said.    (dpa)