Berlin said to toughen anti-terror measures after IS-claimed attacks
Ramped-up security statutes to allow expedited deportation for asylum seekers convicted of crimes or considered 'threat to public security'
Germany’s Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere is preparing to unveil a slew of new anti-terror measures, reports said Wednesday, after two attacks in July were claimed by the Islamic State group.
The new measures to be announced Thursday include speeding up the expulsion process for asylum seekers convicted of crimes, the Bild daily reported, quoting anonymous security sources.
The minister is also planning to introduce “threat to public security” as a new reason for deporting migrants.
Doctors will also have their confidentiality obligations lifted in special cases that would allow them to inform authorities should their patient be a potential threat to the public, added Bild.
The tougher stance comes after the two attacks by migrants in the southern state of Bavaria — an ax rampage on a train in Wuerzburg and a suicide bombing in Ansbach.
In Wuerzburg, the 17-year-old attacker was shot dead by police after injuring five people. In Ansbach 15 people were injured after a failed Syrian asylum seeker detonated his explosive outside a music festival, killing himself.
De Maiziere is also expected to sign off next week on a declaration with regional interior ministers from Chancellor Angela Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union and sister party Christian Social Union that calls for further security and anti-terror measures, according to RND media group which publishes more than 30 regional dailies.
These additional measures include imposing a burqa ban, scrapping the possibility of dual nationalities and boosting the presence of police in trains, as well as at train stations and airports.
Also on Wednesday, German prosecutors said it carried out searches linked to three suspected supporters of IS.
The federal prosecutor’s office said that three targeted in Wednesday’s raids are suspected of seeking members and supporters for the jihadist group since last year, news agency dpa reported. One of them also is believed to have given the group financial and logistical support.
No arrests were made.
The regional WAZ newspaper reported that the searches took place at premises in Duisburg and Dortmund in western Germany and in Hildesheim in northern Germany.