Germany tightens knife, asylum policies after stabbing

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German Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s government says changes are needed after an attack in Solingen.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s government says changes are needed after an attack in Solingen.

The German government has announced a proposed package of tighter security and asylum measures following a deadly stabbing spree linked to Islamic State that has fuelled criticism of the country’s migration policies.

Three people were killed and eight wounded in the attack last Friday which took place during a festival marking Solingen’s 650-year anniversary.

The incident has heightened political wrangling over asylum and deportation rules as the suspect was an asylum seeker from Syria whom the government had failed to deport.

The backlash comes a few days before elections in two eastern states where the anti-immigration AfD party is topping polls, putting further pressure on the centre ruling coalition to take a harder stance on the issue.

Chancellor Olaf Scholz on Tuesday welcomed an offer from opposition leader Friedrich Merz to discuss solutions but the government rejected some of his proposals such as declaring a national emergency or banning Syrians and Afghans from entering Germany.

The package, due to be voted on by Germany’s lower and upper houses of parliament, includes stricter gun regulations and ownership rules, a ban on switchblades and on carrying knives at public events such as folk festivals and sporting events.

Federal law officers will be authorised to use Tasers and background checks for weapon permits will include new measures to prevent extremists from obtaining weapons, according to a government document outlining the measures.

Germany will also tighten asylum and residency laws and procedures, including lowering the threshold for “severe deportation” – when the deportee has committed a crime involving a weapon or dangerous tool.

Criteria for excluding individuals from asylum or refugee status will be tightened, including harsher penalties for serious crimes and also for youth offenders.

Asylum seekers will be excluded from receiving benefits in Germany if they have claims in other European countries and refugees who travel to their home countries without compelling reasons risk losing their protection status, the document read.

“If someone simply goes on a holiday trip to their home country, about which they have previously informed us that they cannot stay safely, then they must lose their protection status,” Justice Minister Marco Buschmann told a press conference.

This rule would not apply to Ukrainian refugees, it said.

The package also outlines measures to combat “violent Islamism,” including giving law enforcement authorities permission to use biometric data from publicly accessible online sources for facial recognition to identify suspects.

The government will strengthen the domestic intelligence agency’s powers when it comes to financial investigations and continue to ban Islamist organisations.

The Islamic State militant group claimed responsibility for the Solingen attack.

The authorities had planned to deport the suspect to Bulgaria last year under European Union asylum rules, according to German media. 

But the deportation was unsuccessful because the man was not at his refugee accommodation when authorities tried to carry out the order, the reports said.

Herbert Reul
North Rhine Westphalia minister Herbert Reul says authorities did not monitor an attack suspect. (AP PHOTO)

The 26-year-old Syrian man was not identified as a potential threat by the security services before the attack, a senior state official said on Thursday.

“Nobody had him on their radar,” said Herbert Reul, the interior minister for the state of North Rhine Westphalia (NRW), the country’s most populous state which includes Solingen.

Authorities in NRW are monitoring 185 people who may pose an Islamist threat but the “perpetrator from Solingen was not one of these people,” Reul told a joint special committee of state MPs.

Reul also said the suspected attacker was captured by police patrolling Solingen on Saturday evening and did not turn himself in to police, as had been widely reported in the media.

Officers noticed the man near the crime scene on Saturday, less than 24 hours after the deadly attack, and approached him because they found his appearance and behaviour suspicious.

Three people wounded in the deadly knife attack in Solingen remain in hospital six days after the attack, Reul said on Thursday.

The other five people injured have been discharged by the hospital and are recovering, he said.

A 56-year-old man, a 67-year-old man and a 56-year-old woman died in the attack, which occurred in front of a music stage on the market square in Solingen during a Festival of Diversity meant to celebrate the city’s 650th anniversary.

with DPA

Reuters