Berlin [Germany], September 5: Several German political leaders demanded stricter asylum and immigration policies ahead of a cross-party meeting on migration and security in Berlin on Tuesday.
Chancellor Olaf Scholz announced the gathering after a deadly mass stabbing at a festival in the western German city of Solingen. The conservative opposition and leaders of Germany's 16 federal states were invited to Berlin to discuss curbing irregular migration. Centre-right Christian Democrat (CDU) leaders urged Scholz to enact major changes in response to the attack. Scholz's junior coalition partner, the free-market liberal Free Democrats (FDP), also joined those calls.
"We need a fundamental reorganization of migration policy," said the CDU's Roman Poseck, who serves as the interior minister in the western German state of Hesse. "In my view, results must be achieved in the short term." "If migration policy does not change, democracy will suffer enormous damage," the FDP's general secretary, Bijan Djir-Sarai, told DPA.
The Interior Ministry, which is hosting the cross-party meeting, said it will focus on a security package announced last week by Scholz's government in response to the Solingen attack that killed three people and injured eight others on August 23.
The suspect is an alleged Islamist extremist from Syria who had avoided being deported. He is being held on charges of murder and suspected membership in the Islamic State terror group. The Solingen attack came after a police officer in the city of Mannheim was killed in early June by an Afghan migrant.
Poseck criticized the government's proposals for failing to address issues at the external borders. In addition to deportations, Poseck said the government needs to consider ways to prevent more migrants from entering the country in the first place.
Source: Qatar Tribune