German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser presented her plan to combat irregular immigration to the lower house of parliament on Thursday, an initiative that includes security measures, restrictions on services for asylum seekers and a promise to provide greater facilities for the deportation of migrants.
According to the government’s draft, which was debated for the first time in the Bundestag on Thursday, asylum seekers will lose state protection if they go on holiday to their home country. However, exceptions apply, among others, to Ukrainian refugees, according to the NTV television channel.
Asylum seekers will also no longer benefit from recognition by the Administration if they are convicted of serious crimes, such as anti-Semitism, racism, among others. In addition, the government’s initiative aims to speed up the deportation of asylum seekers who are in Germany but have been registered in other European Union (EU) countries in accordance with the Dublin Convention.
These migrants, according to Faeser’s plan, will only receive social benefits for fifteen days in Germany. After this period, these services would be reduced to the most basic, since accommodation, food and hygiene would be covered if they remain on German territory.
“This security package fulfils the fundamental promise of a democratic state to safeguard the freedom of its citizens,” Faeser told the Bundestag in his speech that opened the parliamentary debate on the measures stemming from the Islamist-motivated attacks in Mannheim and Solingen, cities in western Germany, and the rise of the far right in the central European country.
“We will not let this promise be undermined by brutal criminals and attacks on innocent people who trust in the security of the state. Deadly attacks like the ones we saw in Mannheim and Solingen require clear answers and we are providing those answers,” the Interior Minister added.
Thorsten Frei, representative of the main opposition group in the Bundestag, consisting of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and the Bavarian Christian Social Union (CSU), said in his response to Faeser that the government’s intention to deport refugees registered in another country is “good”, although not enough.
“The expulsions of the Dublin system are not returns,” added Frei, whose party defends not allowing the entry of irregular immigrants into the country. Faced with internal political pressure, Faeser announced on the 9th fixed and mobile controls at Germany’s borders with France, the Netherlands, Belgium, Denmark and Luxembourg, which will be added to those already existing at the borders with Poland, the Czech Republic, Switzerland. . and Austria.
He also confirmed that the legal formula is being studied to allow in the future to carry out “mass rejections” of irregular immigrants within the legal framework of the EU, which is not easy given that international regulations prohibit summary returns. This Tuesday, the meeting of government, opposition and state leaders to face the challenge of immigration failed, as the parties failed to agree on the measures to be taken, especially because the CDU demanded immediate expulsions at the border which, according to the Executive, violated German and Community law.
The domestic measures package also includes tougher rules on weapons, with the government seeking to ban the carrying of knives in public places or places particularly affected by crime, including train stations.
At the end of June, a police officer died in Mannheim after he intervened to try to subdue a 25-year-old Afghan man who had attacked participants of a public event against Islam on 31 May for what investigators described as “religious motivation”. On 23 August, three people died in a knife attack claimed by the terrorist organisation Islamic State and committed by a 26-year-old Syrian who should have been expelled from the country.
