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IMMIGRATION

Spain rescues 141 migrants from Mediterranean

A total of 141 migrants from the sub-Sahara region were rescued at sea on Saturday between Spain and Morocco, from a variety of makeshift vessels, the Spanish maritime rescue service said.

Published: 14 July 2019 08:23 CEST
Spain rescues 141 migrants from Mediterranean
A rescue boat for the Sociedad de Salvamento y Seguridad Marítima, also known as SASEMAR, Spain's search and rescue agency. Photo: Sasemar
Two boats carrying 86 people, one of which was already beginning to sink, were recovered in the Alboran Sea, the stretch of the Mediterranean between the two countries, a spokesman for the service told AFP.
   
Some of the people were already in the water by the time the rescuers arrived, but everyone was rescued, he said, adding that among the 86 were 14 women and three children.
   
Further west, in the Straits of Gibraltar, rescue boats picked up three men in a kayak, and another 52 people — including 14 women — in a dinghy.   
 
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Around 11,000 migrants have arrived in Spain by sea since the beginning of the year and 203 people have died attempting the crossing from north Africa, according to the latest figures from the International Organization for Migration (IOM), issued on Wednesday.
   
Over the same period in the Mediterranean as a whole, 682 have died or are missing attempting the crossing from northern Africa, while 31,600 migrants have made it to Europe, according to the IOM.

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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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