Germany probing 59 refugees for terror links

Germany’s top security official says authorities are conducting 59 investigations of refugees suspected of possible links to terrorist organizations.

Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere says it would be wrong to put all refugees under general suspicion, “even if there are investigations in individual cases.”

The Funke newspaper group on quotes him as saying: “We are currently talking about 59 investigations for possible links to terrorist structures, and that’s with many hundreds of thousands of newly arrived people.”

Special police officers arrive at the scene after an explosion occurred in Ansbach, Germany, Monday, July 25, 2016. (Friebe/dpa via AP)
Special police officers arrive at the scene after an explosion occurred in Ansbach, Germany, Monday, July 25, 2016. (Friebe/dpa via AP)

He adds that in the overwhelming number of cases, reports turn out not to be true.

De Maiziere calls for Germany’s borders to be better protected without preventing refugees from coming to the country by legal and safe means — “in reasonable numbers.”

He notes that in the Munich gun attack there was no indication that the perpetrator, the German-born son of Iranian asylum-seekers, had failed to integrate in German society.

— AP

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