The town of Mannheim is located in Germany. - Afghanistan deportations sought following knife assault
Following the deadly knife attack in Mannheim, there's been an upsurge in calls for stricter deportations of foreign criminals. Several union-run federal states support Hamburg's Interior Senator Andy Grote's (SPD) proposal to deport heavily criminal foreigners to Afghanistan and Syria in the future. FDP parliamentary group leader Christian Dürr suggested that people who exhibit unacceptable Islamic behavior in Germany should be deported to countries like Afghanistan.
After a deadly knife attack by a 25-year-old Afghan man at an Islam-critical demonstration in Mannheim, a 29-year-old police officer died of his injuries. Federal Justice Minister Marco Buschmann revealed on X that there are clear signs of an Islamic motive behind the incident.
The Federal Prosecutor's Office had previously confirmed that the perpetrator was assumed to have been motivated by religion and took over the investigation. The officer had attempted to deny Islam-critical individuals the freedom to express their opinions.
The case has reignited the debate on dealing with Islamism and foreign criminals. Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) will address the current security situation in Parliament on Thursday. This was discussed in a letter from the Chancellery to the President of the Bundestag, Bärbel Bas (SPD). It remains unclear whether the focus will be on domestic or foreign policy matters.
Bavaria's Interior Minister Joachim Herrmann (CSU) urged the creation of conditions for the resumption of deportations of criminals and potential threats to Syria and Afghanistan while adhering to constitutional considerations of fundamentals and human rights and taking each case into account. The federal government has frequently cited a lack of diplomatic contacts as an issue, which he deemed unacceptable.
A proposal from Hamburg for the next Interior Minister Conference (IMK) has recently surfaced. It calls for the reassessment of the security situation in Afghanistan's capital, Kabul, and Damascus, Syria. "We must find a way to resume deportations of criminals, but also of dangerous individuals and Islamic constitution enemies to Afghanistan," said Senator Grote.
Saxony's Interior Minister Armin Schuster (CDU) wished that Hamburg and the SPD had heeded the proposals of union-led states like Saxony earlier. "If Hamburg and the SPD had followed the rollout of the union-led states last year," he said, "we'd already have deportations to Afghanistan and Syria."
The Federal Interior Ministry reported that Minister Nancy Faeser (SPD) is actively exploring ways to re-establish deportations of criminals and threats to Afghanistan. However, given the difficult security situation in Afghanistan and the fact that there is no internationally recognized government there, various issues need to be resolved.
In Afghanistan, the Taliban claimed power in the summer of 2021, while in Syria, President Bashar al-Assad brutally suppressed protests in 2011, which continues to be a civil war.
The chairman of the IMK, Brandenburg's Interior Minister Michael Stübgen (CDU), stated: "Debating the deportation of serious criminals to countries like Afghanistan and Syria has been ongoing for a while. If we now reach an agreement on this issue, that would be very welcome." At the same time, it's vital to recognize that "we cannot solve all the problems with deportations alone."
CDU General Secretary Carsten Linnemann wrote in a guest article for "Welt," calling for an "Action Plan: Political Islam." Islamist organizations should be banned, and advocating for a caliphate should be a criminal offense. Linnemann believes that "Everyone who comes to our country as a guest and asylum seeker but doesn't adhere to our legal system and undermines our values with their actions has forfeited their right to asylum."
In response to the knife attack in Mannheim, there are also calls for prohibiting knives at certain locations. Andrea Lindholz, the deputy leader of the CSU faction, suggested, as reported by "Rheinische Post," that carrying knives should be forbidden in places where many people gather, such as crowds and train stations.
Eight thousand people gathered in Mannheim this Monday evening for a memorial event, according to the police. Baden-Württemberg's Interior Minister Thomas Strobl (CDU) and Federal Minister Faeser also paid their respects by laying flowers.
The assailant had wounded five participants in a demonstration of the Islam-critical organization Pax Europa as well as a police officer at the site of the attack. Further interrogation of the Afghan is underway.
The person responsible for the crime arrived in Germany around 2013 and submitted an asylum request. His application got denied in 2014, but due to his young age, a deportation order wasn't issued. He had recently been residing in Heppenheim with his wife and two kids. Law enforcement sources claim he hadn't captured any suspicion of being a criminal or suspect prior to the attack.
