Traumatised Germany considers tougher migration policy

Despite its low birth rate, Germany has recently suggested new measures to cut down on the flow of refugees and asylum seekers.  About 890,000 people sought asylum in this European country in 2015. However, the figure decreased to 280,000 in 2016 and to 186,000 in 2017.

The new measures are described as a complete reversal of previous policies the German authorities introduced in 2015 to warmly welcome refugees fleeing war-ravaged areas in the Middle East. Local and foreign residents volunteered to provide logistical and psychological assistance to the newcomers.

However, German brought German chancellor Angela Merkel was caught in crossfire. She was harshly criticized by far-right and anti-immigration groups after a series of terrorist attacks had taken place in the country. Seeking to dispel worries overwhelming the German people, Merkel promised to reconsider the immigration policy to slam the door of the country in the face of ISIS-linked elements.   

Anti-Merkel attack increased substantially after mass sexual assaults, 24 rapes and numerous thefts had taken place in the Cologne city centre during the 2015/2016 New Year’s Eve celebrations.

Although the German police investigated more than 1500 cases, they found it too difficult to lay their hands on the suspects. The victims suspected that their rapists belonged to the Middle East or North African countries. The unprecedented incidents prompted panic-stricken German people to mount pressure on the authorities to enforce a new tougher asylum policy. Far-right and anti-refugee groups campaigned for the deportation of refugees from Muslim countries for despising European cultures.

A series of terrorist attacks in 2016 allegedly launched by Muslim refugees fuelled the German people’s anger. In one of these attacks, five passengers on a train in Wurzburg were seriously injured when an Afghan teenager attacked them with an axe. The ISIS-linked attacker was shot dead by the police when he attempted to flee the scene. The Germany police also reported that a Syrian asylum seeker killed a woman with a machete and wounded two other people outside a bus station in July 2016 in the southwestern German city of Reutlingen before he was arrested.

However, the deadliest attack Germany had ever witnessed took place in December 2016 when Tunisian Anis Amri drove a lorry into a packed Christmas market in Berlin, killing 12 people and injuring 49 others. Amri was killed in an exchange of fire with the Italian police in Milan. ISIS also claimed responsibility for Amri attack. The beleaguered German Chancellor Angela Merkel vowed that the perpetrators would be given the toughest sentence in the German law.

The terrorist attacks encouraged the far-right, anti-immigration Alternative for Germany to mount pressure on Merkel to reverse her government’s migration policy. Alternative for Germany, once considered a fringe party, emerged as the third largest opposition bloc in parliament when it obtained 90 of 589 seats in the Bundestag.   Nonetheless, Merkel managed to manoeuvre safely and reached a tentative coalition agreement with the left-leaning Social Democrats.