Each year, more than 20,000 purses - roughly 55 a day - are stolen. In Hamburg, police are fighting a losing battle against purse-snatchers. Analysts believe this figure - which works out to more than 100 crimes a day - is only a fragment: many crimes are not made public. Although migrants are driving a surge in violent crime in cities and towns across Germany, German authorities are downplaying the lawlessness, apparently to avoid fueling anti-immigration sentiment.Ī confidential police document leaked to the Rheinischen Post revealed that in 2014, a record-breaking 38,000 asylum seekers in Germany were accused of committing crimes in the country. To many critics, it looks as if the German justice system is being disabled by political correctness. But even if migrants are sentenced for crimes, they cannot be deported to countries that the German government deems "unsafe." Moreover, migrants cannot be deported to countries where they may face the death penalty. The government is contemplating a change to Section 60 of the Residency Law ( Aufenthaltsgesetz) to make it possible to deport migrants sentenced for prison terms of one year. In practice, this rarely happens for most petty crimes. German law states that migrants who commit crimes can only be deported if they are sentenced to prison terms of three years or more. Third, the legal hurdles to deportation from Germany are high. Even if Germany sends these individuals back to the countries where they first entered the European Union (usually Greece, Hungary or Italy), with a borderless Europe, migrants can easily make their way back to Germany. This will complicate - and delay - many deportations. It may take years for German authorities to determine the true identities of these people and their countries of origin. Second, tens of thousands of migrants destroyed their passports and other identity documents before arriving in Germany. The Saarbrücker Zeitung reported that up to 30% of the migrants being sheltered in the eastern German states of Brandenburg, Thuringia and Saxony-Anhalt have "simply vanished." Separately, German authorities estimate that hundreds of thousands of migrants have entered the country without being registered and whose whereabouts are unknown. They presumably include economic migrants and others who are trying to avoid deportation if or when their asylum applications are rejected. N24 television has reported that up to 50% of "asylum seekers" have gone into hiding their whereabouts are unknown. This would make it virtually impossible for asylum applications from those countries to be approved.Ĭritics of the plan say it is more of a political charade than substance and will do little to alleviate Germany's migration crisis.įirst, the German government has lost track of the whereabouts of hundreds of thousands of migrants who entered the country in 2015. The government also said that it would try to limit migration from North Africa by declaring Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia as so-called safe countries, where there is no armed conflict or threat of violence, persecution or torture. Exceptions would be made for those who can prove that their family members are being "personally, urgently persecuted."
In addition, the plan would introduce a two-year waiting period for legitimate refugees who want to bring family members to Germany. The stated aim is to eventually deport those who arrived in Germany under false pretenses. The centers would also step up efforts to weed out fraudulent applications submitted by economic migrants who are posing as asylum seekers. The centers would supposedly fast-track legitimate asylum requests submitted by people who can prove they are fleeing war-zones. Known as the Asylum Package II ( Asylpaket II), the draft law was announced by the cabinet on January 28 and must now be approved by the Bundestag, the lower house of the German parliament, for it to come into effect.Ī central feature of the plan involves increasing the number of migrant reception centers to five, up from two today. The measures emerged in response to voter outrage over the sexual assaults of hundreds of women by migrants in Cologne and other German cities on New Year's Eve - and alleged attempts by the government and the news media to cover up the crimes. After three months of political infighting, Germany's coalition government has announced new measures aimed at making it easier to deport migrants who are convicted of committing crimes.
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