Germany is working on a “secret plan” to create an alliance of European countries that will turn back migrants at their borders.

Friedrich Merz, the chancellor-in-waiting, has opened informal talks with Poland, the Czech Republic, Austria, Switzerland and France to seek a common position on cutting the number of refugee arrivals, the Bild newspaper reported.

Details of the plan remain unclear. However, Mr Merz, 69, is understood to have been inspired by an initiative put forward by Warsaw as part of its presidency of the European Council.

In a paper presented to Brussels in January, Donald Tusk, the Polish prime minister, described illegal migration as “a threat to the security and territorial integrity of the entire union” and proposed using “all available leverage” to get countries outside the EU to take back their nationals.

Mr Merz is under pressure to deliver on promises made before the German election, when he committed to stopping all illegal migration at Germany’s land borders.

After an Afghan refugee stabbed a toddler to death in the small town of Aschaffenburg in January, he said that he would block all asylum seekers from entering the country as one of his first acts in power.