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IMMIGRATION

PM says Denmark ‘ready to help’ Greece stem refugee arrivals

Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen has contacted the governments of Greece and Bulgaria to offer Danish assistance in preventing an uptick in migrant and refugee crossings from Turkey.

PM says Denmark 'ready to help' Greece stem refugee arrivals
People walking near the Turkish-Greek border on March 3rd 2020. Photo: Ozan Kose/AFP/Ritzau Scanpix

Denmark is also to offer one of its surveillance aircraft to the EU’s border control agency Frontex to assist in light of the changing circumstances around the Greek-Turkish border, Ritzau reports.

Turkey’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Saturday opened both the overland border and the sea route between Turkey and the EU. That includes borders with both Greece and Bulgaria.

The PM said she was concerned about a potential increase in refugee and migrant arrivals in the EU as a result of the Turkish decision.

“There’s no doubt that Greece and Bulgaria face a big job in protecting Europe’s outer border,” she said.

“I have therefore contacted my Greek and Bulgarian colleagues and given notice that Denmark is ready to provide support with contributions that can protect Europe’s borders,” she said.

Frederiksen has written to Greek PM Kyriakos Mitsotakis and Bulgarian PM Boyko Borissov.

In the letter to Mitsotakis, she called the situation faced by Greece “extremely difficult” and the burden on the EU country “unacceptable”, Ritzau reports.

The Danish Challenger surveillance aircraft offered to Frontex would assist with the agency’s efforts against irregular migration and cross-border crime in the Mediterranean region.

Thousands of people have attempted to cross into Greece since Erdogan’s decision to open borders on Saturday. Greece has so far denied the migrants entry.

According to a UN estimate, up to 13,000 people are currently stranded at Greece’s border with Turkey.

EU Commission president Ursula von der Leyen has promised the Greeks assistance, while Denmark’s foreign minister Jeppe Kofod has said the country “would not accept” a repeat of the situation in late 2015, when there was a peak in refugee arrivals in Europe from conflict zones such as Syria.

“Protection of the EU’s outer border is an important priority for the government. That’s why we have reacted quickly and reached out to both Greece and Bulgaria,” Kofod said.

READ ALSO: Denmark against EU agreement to distribute refugees: minister

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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.

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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