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IMMIGRATION

Italy arrests man for smuggling migrants to France

A man has been arrested by Italian police for allegedly smuggling migrants into France.

Published: 17 August 2016 15:21 CEST
Updated: 17 August 2016 16:22 CEST
Italy arrests man for smuggling migrants to France
The man was caught with a group of eight illegal migrants in his van. Photo: Italian police

The 37-year-old, a resident of Nice, was arrested in Breil-sur-Roya, a French mountain hamlet close to the border, after being caught carrying eight Eritreans, including three women and two children, in his Citroen van, Italian police said in a statement on Wednesday.

The alleged people-smuggler was followed by police from Ventimiglia, an Italian border town which has become a migrant bottleneck.

Police said the man was already known to police in the area for his involvement with “no border” activist groups.

His arrest follows that of a Tunisian citizen, who was caught smuggling 28 migrants across the border, on July 13th.

Tensions over the migrant situation have grown at the border in recent weeks.

Earlier this month, some 200 migrants managed to break through police barriers in Ventimiglia and make their way into France. They were later sent back as ‘no border’ activists clashed with police, with one officer dying of a heart attack.
 

CRIME

Germany mulls expulsions to Afghanistan after knife attack

Germany said Tuesday it was considering allowing deportations to Afghanistan, after an asylum seeker from the country injured five and killed a police officer in a knife attack.

Published: 4 June 2024 14:50 CEST
Germany mulls expulsions to Afghanistan after knife attack

Officials had been carrying out an “intensive review for several months… to allow the deportation of serious criminals and dangerous individuals to Afghanistan”, Interior Minister Nancy Faeser told journalists.

“It is clear to me that people who pose a potential threat to Germany’s security must be deported quickly,” Faeser said.

“That is why we are doing everything possible to find ways to deport criminals and dangerous people to both Syria and Afghanistan,” she said.

Deportations to Afghanistan from Germany have been completely stopped since the Taliban retook power in 2021.

But a debate over resuming expulsions has resurged after a 25-year-old Afghan was accused of attacking people with a knife at an anti-Islam rally in the western city of Mannheim on Friday.

A police officer, 29, died on Sunday after being repeatedly stabbed as he tried to intervene in the attack.

Five people taking part in a rally organised by Pax Europa, a campaign group against radical Islam, were also wounded.

Friday’s brutal attack has inflamed a public debate over immigration in the run up to European elections and prompted calls to expand efforts to expel criminals.

READ ALSO: Tensions high in Mannheim after knife attack claims life of policeman

The suspect, named in the media as Sulaiman Ataee, came to Germany as a refugee in March 2013, according to reports.

Ataee, who arrived in the country with his brother at the age of only 14, was initially refused asylum but was not deported because of his age, according to German daily Bild.

Ataee subsequently went to school in Germany, and married a German woman of Turkish origin in 2019, with whom he has two children, according to the Spiegel weekly.

Per the reports, Ataee was not seen by authorities as a risk and did not appear to neighbours at his home in Heppenheim as an extremist.

Anti-terrorism prosecutors on Monday took over the investigation into the incident, as they looked to establish a motive.

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