Bloody deed in Solingen

New details reveal multiple organ failure

The Syrian is under investigation for murder and suspected membership of the Islamic State (IS) terrorist militia.

(Bild: APA Pool/Uli Deck)

The bloody knife attack in Solingen has revealed glaring flaws in the German asylum system. Federal Chancellor Olaf Scholz is now rehashing old promises, while his party colleagues are defending previous policies. Blind spots in the system are becoming increasingly obvious.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz declared the asylum issue a top priority at the end of 2023. In an interview with Der Spiegel, he announced that he wanted to deport people on a "grand scale". Today it can be said: The otherwise taciturn Social Democrat probably took his mouth too full. Because in most cases, the announcement did not come to pass.

Since then, Germany has been hit by several attacks. As a consequence of the deadly knife attack in Mannheim in June, Scholz had announced that the deportation of serious criminals and terrorist "endangerers" to Afghanistan and Syria would be made possible again. This has not yet been achieved.

Background

• Germany currently has no diplomatic relations with either the Taliban rulers or the Assad government.
• Deportations to the countries of origin Afghanistan and Syria are therefore difficult to carry out.
• Against the backdrop of the attacks in Mannheim and Solingen, the opposition is increasing the pressure.

Blatant shortcomings in the deportation procedure
The next shock on Friday evening: three people were killed with a knife at a town festival in Solingen (North Rhine-Westphalia). Eight people were injured, four of them seriously. The suspected perpetrator is a 26-year-old Syrian, IS claimed responsibility for the bloody deed. The case ruthlessly exposes the flaws in the system:

• As was revealed on Sunday, the man should actually have been deported to Bulgaria last year because his asylum application had been rejected. The Syrian had entered the European Union via Bulgaria.
• However, the 26-year-old was not found in his refugee accommodation in Paderborn on the day of his planned deportation. At that time, German police officers were not allowed to enter any rooms in shared accommodation other than the room of the person being deported.
• The Syrian had "not gone into hiding", according to NRW Interior Minister Herbert Reul (CDU), but had repeatedly stayed in the refugee accommodation.
• It is still unclear why his absence was largely without consequences for him. After the failed deportation, the authorities failed to extend the relevant Dublin deadlines. From then on, Germany was responsible for his case. The 26-year-old was granted subsidiary protection at the end of 2023, which refugees from the civil war country of Syria often receive.
• The question now is how persistent the attempts were to get the man out of the country. And why no arrest warrant was issued after his brief disappearance. The responsible minister, Josefine Paul (Greens), is currently busy trying to understand what went wrong here.

NRW Minister President Wüst, Solingen Mayor Kurzbach and Chancellor Scholz commemorate the victims.

(Bild: AFP/INA FASSBENDER)

Union calls for a halt to admissions
A debate has flared up in Germany about how the asylum process could be reformed from application to potential deportation. CDU leader Friedrich Merz, for example, has called for a radical halt to the admission of refugees from Syria and Afghanistan. He left open how this should be legally implemented.

Bavaria's Minister President Markus Söder from the CDU's sister party, the CSU, called for stricter deportation practices for rejected refugees. Recently, cases of asylum seekers who went on vacation in their home countries despite their refugee status have also attracted attention in Germany.

CDU leader Merz outlines his asylum plan: 

"I call on Scholz to join us in making quick decisions that are consistently geared towards preventing further terrorist attacks. Syria and Afghanistan can be deported, we will not accept any more refugees from there," said Merz, increasing the pressure on Chancellor Scholz.

SPD rebuffs CDU
The leader of the "traffic light" party, on the other hand, demanded that the perpetrator be punished "with the full force of the law". In response to the deadly knife attack in Solingen, Scholz held out the prospect of a rapid tightening of gun laws on Monday. He promised again: "This should and will happen very quickly," assured the SPD politician during his visit to Solingen.

And he said what he had already said after Mannheim: Scholz now wants to deport people more quickly. If necessary, "with legal regulations", which doesn't sound very ground-breaking. Deportations of Dublin cases that were initially in other European countries would have to be expedited. "It will certainly make sense to establish a task force to study this in detail," mused Scholz.

Context

• Most of the transfers of asylum seekers to other EU countries requested by Germany under the so-called Dublin procedure are not carried out.
• Deportations under the Dublin principle are possible within certain time limits if asylum seekers have already been registered as asylum seekers in another EU country before entering the country.
• According to figures from the German Ministry of the Interior, 12,808 of the applications were rejected by the requested states, while in 21,314 cases the application was approved.
• However, only 3043 transfers had actually taken place in the current year up to the end of June.

Scholz also rebuffed CDU leader Merz via party leader Saskia Esken and SPD General Secretary Kevin Kühnert. The opposition leader's plans to stop admissions could not be implemented because "the constitution, our basic order, is opposed to this", Kühnert explained in an interview. Kühnert argued that the answer cannot be to slam the door in the faces of people who are themselves fleeing Islamists.

His suggestion: "We have to look at hate preachers, especially online, we have to look at how radicalization takes place." Work is being done on the deportation of serious offenders, as promised by the Chancellor.

SPD leader finds attack uninstructive
It is also true that the suspected Solingen attacker has not yet been identified as a "threat". This is because the authorities did not have the Syrian on their radar and the terror early warning systems remained silent. NRW Interior Minister Reul now wants to give the police more legal powers to gather information "in advance". "We're having an insanely hard time with this in Germany. I really don't understand it anymore."

Reul wants to give the police a helping hand:

However, his words do not go down well with the Social Democrats. According to SPD party leader Esken, it is difficult to learn anything from the Solingen case: "Not much can be learned from this attack because the perpetrator was not under observation." Her conclusion: the security authorities "are definitely paying attention". The federal government is not inactive here. Her words left political observers puzzled.

Above all, the anonymity of Solingen was a headache, and it was precisely at this point that reflection - and consequently learning - was the order of the day. Nobody had this man, who should have been back in Bulgaria long ago, on their radar. How should we react to a danger that nobody sees coming?