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IMMIGRATION

AfD lawmakers travel to ‘normal’ Damascus in attempt to encourage refugee returns

Lawmakers from Germany's far-right AfD party were in Syria on Tuesday, expressing "surprise" at scenes of normal life in Damascus as they push their bid for Berlin to start sending refugees back to the war-torn country.

Published: 6 March 2018 16:32 CET
AfD lawmakers travel to 'normal' Damascus in attempt to encourage refugee returns
Daily life in Damascus. Photo: DPA

The group of six, comprised of four members from Germany's national parliament and two state lawmakers, arrived in Damascus on Monday for talks with pro-regime officials and a tour they say is aimed at getting a real idea of the situation on the ground.

“Since the German media's reporting does not offer a trustworthy way of assessing the actual situation in Syria, the goal of the trip is to get an understanding of the humanitarian situation on the ground and the rebuilding efforts in the areas liberated from terrorists,” they wrote in a statement.

The visitors said they were “surprised” by the “normalcy seen on the streets of Damascus”.

“Women without headscarves are free to move around the strikingly clean streets of the metropolis,” they said.

The group is being led by Christian Blex, a member of North Rhine-Westphalia's regional parliament, who posted pictures on Facebook of his Monday meeting with Syria's pro-regime Grand Mufti Ahmed Badreddin Hassoun.

The top Sunni cleric “calls all Syrian refugees to return home”, according to Blex.

Hassoun often appears alongside Syrian President Bashar al-Assad for religious occasions and has in the past warned against Western interference in his country, threatening terror attacks in Europe.

The German group also met with “representatives from the Syrian parliament”, Blex wrote, who posted a string of pictures of Damascus street scenes, including one from his hotel room showing a pool view.

“You hardly see any military. There's advertising for mobile phones and TVs. Normal daily life,” Blex added.

Ahead of the trip, Blex said in an interview with the far-right Compact magazine that the delegation would be open to meeting with Assad himself.

The anti-Islam, anti-immigrant Alternative for Germany (AfD) entered the Bundestag for the first time last year, capitalising on anger over an influx of more than a million asylum seekers in Germany since 2015.

As one of its first acts in parliament, the party proposed striking a deal with Assad to repatriate Syrian refugees, who make up the largest number of newcomers in Germany. The motion was rejected.

More than 340,000 people have been killed and millions displaced in Syria since the civil war started in 2011.

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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