Deportation of migrants to combat crime, German minister

BERLIN: The German government vowed on Tuesday to tackle rising crime by speeding up migrant deportations in a bid to curb the appeal of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) in state elections this year.

Interior Minister Nancy Faeser presented data showing a 5.5% rise in overall crime last year and a 13.5% rise in the number of suspects with foreign backgrounds, saying Germany needed to improve integration and speed up deportations.

“Foreign criminals must leave Germany much more quickly.” “The strict deportation rules that we have created must now be enforced,” said Faeser, a Social Democrat in Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s uneasy three-party coalition. “If you don’t follow the rules, you have to leave,” she said, adding that she also has zero tolerance for violent crime, which rose 8.6% last year.

Opposition parties, both the Conservatives and the AfD, have pounced on the numbers and called for tougher immigration policies such as stricter border controls and more deportations.

“What the AfD has been warning about for years can no longer be hidden… New crime statistics have sparked a debate about 'foreign crime',” said Richard Graupner of the AfD in Bavaria. In most polls, the AfD is in second place nationwide and in the lead in three eastern federal states where elections are taking place in September.
(REUTERS)

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