Chancellor Angela Merkel’s under increasing pressure with security and refugee debates heating up in Germany ahead of federal elections next year.

So it’s not surprising politicians in the Christian Social Union, the Bavarian sister party to her Christian Democratic Union, are looking to propose a drastic shift in how Germany, and Europe, handle migrant arrivals.

A CSU party convention next week is set to call for tens of thousands of migrants intercepted in the Mediterranean Sea to be sent back to North Africa.

Returning people to African ports is not a completely new proposal. Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere made a similar suggestion in early November.

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He says this is to discourage more people from attempting the dangerous crossing.

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Minister Thomas de Maizière says African migrants saved at sea  should be sent back to Africa instead of taken to Europe.

A ministerial spokeswoman says this measure would discourage migrants from coming and demolishing the organisations of human traffickers that organise the crossings.

Director of the Germany’s Federal Police Helmut Teichmann says the federal government’s aim is to stop the refugees before they reach Europe.

On Saturday, 2 200 more people tried to cross the Strait of Sicily in 16 different vessels, and were rescued by the Italian Coast Guard who later brought them to Italy.

Rescuers also recovered ten bodies of migrants who drowned during the attempt.

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