The three German political parties in Chancellor Angela Merkel’s fragile coalition government have backed a tough refugee policy to appease hardline conservative allies.
After a month-long dispute, Merkel's coalition agreed to a deal, under which the number of asylum-seekers in the country will be reduced.
The SPD had earlier declined to endorse the new policies put forward by Merkel in a bid to thwart a rebellion by Interior Minister Horst Seehofer of the CSU.
Merkel, during the crisis talks, advocated tightening border controls and setting up closed transit centers to hold refugees on the Austrian frontier.
But the agreement, which was a U-turn in Merkel's liberal refugee policy, immediately set off resistance from Germany's neighbours as well as the SPD.
Germany’s patience regarding the influx of asylum seekers hit a tipping point in June, when Seehofer threatened Merkel with an ultimatum to curb refugee arrivals, triggering the worst political crisis of her coalition government some 100 days after it came to office.
Merkel's decision to open Germany's borders in 2015 to asylum-seekers, many of whom were fleeing Western-led wars in Syria and Iraq, has deeply divided the nation and its neighbors.
The crisis set off a rise in nationalist, anti-immigrant sentiments in EU countries like Austria and Italy, where anti-establishment, far-right parties are now in power.
Germany’s Merkel rejects Trump’s claims that refugees have been behind a surge in crime in Germany.
Germany’s CSU gives Merkel two weeks to come up with an inclusive solution to the refugee issue.
The German envoy to Lebanon dismisses claims that donors, the UN and the international community are trying to settle Syrian refugees in Lebanon.