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IMMIGRATION

Merkel defends refugee decision in protest-hit Chemnitz

German Chancellor Angela Merkel was forced to defend her refugee policy on Friday in a highly anticipated visit to an eastern city hit by xenophobic protests that shocked the country earlier this year.

Published: 16 November 2018 21:42 CET
Merkel defends refugee decision in protest-hit Chemnitz
Merkel speaks with readers of the Freie Presse. Photo: DPA

Merkel spent half a day in the former communist city of Chemnitz meeting 
residents, but tensions were clear with a group of far-right protesters 
marching and the city mayor criticising her for taking too long to visit.

Saxony state, where Chemnitz is located, has been a stronghold of far-right parties and groups that bitterly oppose Merkel for her 2015 decision to keep German borders open to a mass influx of migrants and refugees.

Chemnitz came under the spotlight after the deadly stabbing of a 
35-year-old German with Cuban roots on August 26th, which sparked protests that quickly escalated into racist mob violence.

SEE ALSO: 'We aren't all Nazis': Chemnitz on edge after anti-migrant violence

In an interview with the Süddeutsche Zeitung newspaper ahead of Merkel's visit, mayor Barbara Ludweg said it would have been “better if the chancellor came immediately after the events in August to hold dialogue with Chemnitzers.”

About hundred far-right protesters also rallied in the city on Friday, some bearing slogans like “Merkel must go” or “Heil Merkel”

At the forum organized by local media Freie Presse, Merkel was repeatedly taken to task over her refugee policy that allowed more than a million asylum seekers into Germany since 2015.

Turkey deal helped

Challenged by a Chemnitz resident who berated her over her policy and her rallying call of “wir schaffen das” (we'll manage it) at the height of the 
influx, Merkel defended her decision.

She said that despite heavy criticisms, she negotiated a deal with Turkish 
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan that saw Ankara halting asylum seekers from embarking on the perilous journey to Europe in exchange for financial aid.

If she made mistakes, it was not in letting the asylum seekers in, she 
said, but failing to ensure refugees have a safe way out of their 
conflict-torn nations, rather than turn to people smugglers.

“My error .. lies before the arrival of the refugees,” she said.

In August, hours after the stabbing, mobs of mainly right-wing extremist 
football hooligans marched through the city and launched random street attacks against people they took to be foreigners, including an Afghan, a Syrian and a Bulgarian man.

A mass rally the next evening drew thousands of far-right protesters, some of whom gave the illegal Hitler salute and clashed with antifascist 
counter-protesters.

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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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