UPDATE - Germany to deport Afghans and Syrians who have committed serious crimes, Chancellor Scholz says

UPDATES WITH MORE REMARKS BY GERMAN CHANCELLOR, ADDS BACKGROUND

By Anadolu staff

BERLIN (AA) - Germany is planning to change its regulations to deport Afghans and Syrians who have committed serious crimes, Chancellor Olaf Scholz announced on Thursday.

Addressing lawmakers in parliament, following a knife attack that killed a police officer last week, Scholz said Germany will not tolerate religious extremists and criminals, who exploit the country’s laws protecting refugees.

“Such criminals should be deported even if they come from Syria and Afghanistan. Serious criminals and terrorists have no place here. In such cases the security interests of Germany outweigh the protection interests of the perpetrator,” he said.

Scholz said the Interior Ministry is currently working on legal changes and practical steps to enable the deportation of Afghan nationals who have committed terrorist acts or serious crimes to their home country.

“We will no longer tolerate terrorist crimes being glorified and celebrated, this is a slap in the face of the victims, their loved ones, and our democratic system. Therefore we will tighten our deportation regulations,” he said, adding that those who glorify terrorism will also be deported.

Scholz’s center left-liberal coalition government came under growing pressure from opposition parties to deport extremist or criminal foreigners after the attack last week in Mannheim, where a police officer was killed while trying to stop a knife-wielding attacker.

Authorities said the assailant, who first attacked anti-Islam activist Michael Sturzenberger and later stabbed the police officer, was a suspected religious extremist. The 25-year-old perpetrator was an Afghan citizen, and arrived in Germany as a refugee in 2014, local media reported.

Chancellor Scholz underlined that such terror attacks target democratic freedoms as well as the peaceful coexistence of people from different cultures and religions in Germany, and warned against negative generalizations against Muslims and anti-immigrant propaganda by far-right groups.

"There are more than 20 million citizens with an immigration background living in Germany. They are our neighbors, work colleagues, schoolmates, or friends. They are also appalled and shocked by the horrible act in Mannheim,” the chancellor said.

"They are part of our society and we will not allow ourselves to be divided. It is absurd and foolish to place more than 20 million people under general suspicion. Anyone who abuses crimes such as the one in Mannheim for this purpose is lighting the fuse to our unity. That would damage our nation,” he added.