Following a fatal knife attack in Mannheim, Germany, politicians from several parties are calling for stricter deportations policies of foreign criminals.
Calls for Stricter Deportations
Hamburg's Interior Senator Andy Grote (SPD) and officials from several CDU-governed federal states support the idea of deporting foreigners who commit serious criminal offenses to Afghanistan and Syria in the future, according to Tagesschau.
FDP parliamentary group leader Christian Dürr echoed this demand, telling Bild newspaper that individuals exhibiting Islamist behavior should also be deported to countries not previously considered.
Bavaria's Interior Minister Joachim Herrmann (CSU) stressed the need to create repatriation options to Syria and Afghanistan while balancing constitutional considerations of fundamental and human rights, as stated in the editorial network Germany.
Federal Interior Minister Nancy Faeser (SPD) noted that her ministry has been intensively examining for several months whether serious criminals can be deported to Afghanistan. She stressed that Germany's security interests must outweigh the interests of the individuals concerned in remaining in the country.
Green Party politician Lamya Kaddor criticized these plans, pointing out that under the Taliban in Afghanistan, criminals are more likely to be rewarded than punished. She argued that deportations to Afghanistan were not feasible under the rule of law and questioned whether Germany truly wanted to establish diplomatic relations with the Taliban regime.
Instead, she suggested that convicted criminals should serve their sentences in Germany.
The attack in question involved a 25-year-old Afghan who wielded a knife at an anti-Islam rally in Mannheim, injuring six men, including a police officer who later died from his injuries.
The Federal Prosecutor's Office has taken over the investigation, suspecting an Islamist motive behind the attack.
