The German Interior Ministry wants to stop migrants ever reaching Europe's Mediterranean coast by picking them up at sea and returning them to Africa

In what would be a huge shift for a country with one of the most generous asylum policies, the ministry says that the European Union should adopt an Australian-style system under which migrants intercepted at sea are sent for processing at camps in third countries. The ministry's proposal calls for migrants picked up in the Mediterranean - most of whom set off from conflict-torn Libya - to be sent to Tunisia, Egypt or other north African states to apply for asylum from there. In related news, a 12-foot high barrier - higher than the Berlin Wall - is being erected in the German city of Munich to protect locals from young refugees who are set to move into the area. Locals campaigned for the wall, in the suburb of Neuperlach Süd, after authorities decided that some 160 young unaccompanied migrants will move into a large shelter which is less than 100 meters from a residential estate. Critics say that the wall is further proof of the alienation voters feel with Chancellor Angela Merkel's refugee policy.