Since the knife attack in Mannheim, politicians have been talking more and more about deporting serious criminals and “dangerous people”. This is currently impossible when it comes to Syrians or Afghans.
According to the federal government, 35 so-called dangerous individuals have been deported from Germany since 2021. According to the security authorities, 129 foreign “dangerous individuals” are currently in Germany, 100 of whom have applied for asylum in the past. This is evident from the Interior Ministry’s response to a question from MP Sahra Wagenknecht.
After an Afghan man fatally attacked a police officer in Mannheim with a knife at the end of May, Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) announced that he wanted to make it possible to deport serious criminals and “dangerous individuals” to Afghanistan and Syria again. The Interior Ministry is examining whether deportations to these countries, with which Germany has no relations, could be carried out via neighboring countries.
Who are “threats”?
“Threat” are people whom the police believe are capable of committing serious politically motivated crimes, including terrorist attacks. The “Status” working group in the Joint Terrorism and Defense Center is dealing with the question of how foreign “threats” can be deported from Germany or kept away. The answer to Wagenknecht, which covers the period from January 1, 2021 to June 11, 2024, refers to the cases processed there. According to this, 146 threats are known there, 60 of them from Syria, 13 from Iraq and twelve from Tajikistan. Of the 146, the 129 mentioned are presumed to be in Germany. Of these, 39 have asylum protection status, 30 “threats” are subject to a deportation ban, in 22 cases the asylum application was rejected or the protection status revoked, and nine are in the asylum process.
Criticism from the BSW and the AfD
“When it comes to Islamist threats, Chancellor Scholz talks a lot and does little,” said Wagenknecht. Anyone who poses a security risk must be deported, regardless of their country of origin.
The deportation offensive announced by Scholz must finally be put into action, said AfD MP Leif-Erik Holm. “Anyone who commits a crime here has forfeited their right of residence.”
In response to Holm’s question about foreigners in German prisons, the Ministry of Justice informed him that 24,259 non-Germans were incarcerated at the end of March 2023. As a spokeswoman for the Ministry of Justice announced, citing data from the Federal Statistical Office, there were a total of 58,571 prisoners and detainees in correctional facilities at that time, including pre-trial detention, deportation detention and civil detention. 1,943 people were temporarily absent on the reference date.
Source: Stern
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