On Monday 26 August, Germany’s Social Democrat Chancellor, Olaf Scholz, promised to speed up the deportation of illegal immigrants in Germany and to tighten up firearms legislation, during a visit to the scene of the terrorist attack in Solingen on Friday 23 August that killed three people and seriously injured others.
The 26-year-old man, imprisoned on 25 August, is a Syrian asylum seeker who arrived in Germany in 2022 and is said to have pledged allegiance to the Islamic State organisation.
He was due to be sent back to Bulgaria, his point of entry into the EU, last year under the Dublin Regulation, but the procedure failed, AFP reported.
According to Politico, on 26 August Olaf Scholz called for a working group of European countries to be set up to assess the implementation of European rules on asylum, which have just been reformed by the new ‘Pact on Migration and Asylum’.
On 26 Monday, German opposition parties such as the CDU (affiliated with the EPP) called for a tougher German migration policy, with accelerated returns, permanent controls at the internal borders of the Schengen area and a reduction in the number of migrants arriving in Germany.
Moreover, the attack took place six days before a key regional election for the German coalition in the east of the country.
Questioned regarding the subject on 27 August, the European Commission indicated that, at this stage, it was primarily up to the German authorities to investigate the attack. It is in close contact with Berlin on all matters relating to “migration management and security”.
“We very recently adopted the ‘Pact’, our working basis”, the Commission added, refusing to comment on all the proposals made in the wake of this attack. “We are concentrating on implementing the ‘Pact’”, added spokesman Eric Mamer.
For several months, Germany, along with a handful of other Member States, has been considering organising more returns of Syrian asylum seekers and refugees to their countries of origin. In May, eight Member States expressed their support for this approach (see EUROPE 13413/36).
However, on 27 August, the Commission indicated that, in its view, conditions had not yet been met for organising safe returns to this country. (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)