German Chancellor Olaf Scholz wants to allow the deportation of serious criminals to Afghanistan and Syria again, he told the Bundestag on Thursday.
“Such criminals must be deported – even if they come from Syria and Afghanistan,” he said. “There is no place here for serious criminals and terrorist threats.”
The chancellor did not explain exactly how he plans to make this possible, but he said the Home Office was working on practical implementation and was already in discussions with Afghanistan’s neighbors.
His comments come after a recent stabbing attack in the southwestern city of Mannheim. During a meeting organized by the anti-Islam movement Pax Europa, an Afghan injured several people, including a police officer who later died.
The attack sparked a debate about relaxing the current ban on deportations to Afghanistan.
Scholz also said that the glorification and celebration of terrorist crimes would no longer be tolerated.
“That is why we will tighten our deportation rules so that there is a serious interest in deportation by creating terrorist crimes,” Scholz said.
“Anyone who glorifies terrorism is against all our values and should be deported.”
