German Chancellor, Angela Merkel is considering a stricter policy on migrants following sexual assaults and robberies on women in Cologne, Germany, on new year’s eve.

According to a BBC report, Merkel said she will consider changes in the law to make it easier to deport migrants who commit crimes.

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

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," Ms Merkel said.

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

The identification of the attackers in Cologne as North African or Arab in appearance has caused alarm in Germany because of the influx of more than a million migrants and refugees in the past year.

Meanwhile German officials have warned that anti-immigrant groups have been trying to use the attacks to stir up hatred.

Similar attacks to those seen in Cologne were also reported in Hamburg and in Stuttgart.

The anti-immigration Pegida group has said it will hold a demonstration in Cologne on Saturday.

Police are expecting around 1,000 people to gather in front of the city's main train station, German media reports say.