DHAKA: German Chancellor Angela Merkel has said she will consider changes in the law to make it easier to deport migrants who commit crimes after sex attacks on women in Cologne.

The attacks on New Year's Eve have shocked the country and sparked a debate about Germany's open-door policy on migrants, reports the BBC.

The police's handling of the events has also been sharply criticised.

The head of the city police force has been suspended from his duties.

Victims described chaos as dozens of sexual assaults and robberies were carried out with little apparent response from the authorities.

Under current German laws, asylum seekers are only forcibly sent back if they have been sentenced to at least three years, and providing their lives are not at risk in their countries of origin.

Officials from Angela Merkel's conservative Christian Democrat party are expected to propose that migrants jailed for any length of time should face deportation.

"I think there are indications that changes must happen," Merkel said.

"The interior minister and the justice minister are discussing just what we could improve," she added.

BDST:  1220 HRS, JAN 8, 2016
RS