German migration plan's secrecy vexes lawmakers

German lawmakers are voicing growing frustration that a much-touted migration "master plan" is dominating the country's political debate although hardly anybody has seen it.

Interior Minister Horst Seehofer is keeping the 63-point plan secret from his own staff even as he and Chancellor Angela Merkel haggle over the details.

One of Merkel's top aides, Christian Democratic Union party general secretary Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, said Monday "it's an increasing problem that we have to say we don't have this master plan."

An aide to a European Parliament lawmaker recently submitted a freedom of information request for the plan, which has figured in renewed European Union discussions about immigration policy.

Mathias Schindler, a researcher for Pirate Party lawmaker Julia Reda, acknowledged that the formal request for access was unusual. He compared the secrecy surrounding the plan to the British government withholding its Brexit analyses from lawmakers.