Germany promises to deport criminal migrants to Afghanistan – Euractiv

Germany will begin deporting migrants who commit crimes on German territory to their home countries, including Afghanistan, following the suspected Islamist knife attack at the end of May, Chancellor Olaf Scholz said on Thursday (6 June), as parties rush to allay security concerns ahead of the EU elections.

A knife attacker stabbed Six people were killed at an anti-Islam rally in Mannheim last week; one of the victims, a police officer, succumbed to his injuries on Sunday.

According to current information, the arrested attacker is a radical Islamist who came to Germany from Afghanistan in 2014 and was allowed to stay despite his asylum application being rejected.

In response to calls for a change in the government's deportation policy, Chancellor Scholz (SPD/S&D) promised to send criminals back to their home countries, even if they came from high-risk areas.

“Such criminals must be deported, even if they come from Syria and Afghanistan,” Scholz said on Thursday in the Berlin House of Representatives.

“The Interior Ministry is working to facilitate the deportation of criminals and dangerous persons to Afghanistan,” he added, referring to an investigation initiated by Interior Minister Nancy Faeser (SPD/S&D).

In view of the persecution by the Taliban regime and widespread hunger, deportations from Germany to Afghanistan remain difficult, if not impossible, as asylum law prohibits deportations to areas where people's lives are threatened.

Tougher rhetoric ahead of the EU elections

However, German politicians from across the political spectrum have stepped up their rhetoric on Islamism and migration following the knife attack, ahead of Germans going to the polls for the EU elections on Sunday.

“Islamism is the enemy of a free society” and must be “fought,” says Ricarda Lang, co-chair of the pro-immigration Greens, who are part of Scholz’s three-party coalition. said on Sunday (2 June).

“I believe that it ultimately helps the right-wing populists if we do not have this debate in the democratic center,” she added.

Despite poll losses as a result of several scandals in recent weeks, the far-right AfD could still take second place in Sunday's election.

However, Scholz also warned against xenophobic reflexes and called for social unity after the attack.

“It is absurd to have more than 20 million people [in Germany with a migration background] “They are under general suspicion. They are also often victims of hate speech and violence. They are also threatened by Islamists and often intimidated,” he said.

According to youngest According to the government report, the extreme right remains the main source of politically motivated violence in Germany, with 1,270 cases in 2023.

This is 14 times more than the number of cases that can be traced back to religious ideologies – and this number is increasing.

[Edited by Oliver Noyan/Zoran Radosavljevic]

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