Germany announces tougher migration measures ahead of state elections

BERLIN — Germany’s ruling coalition on Thursday announced tougher migration measures, days ahead of two critical state elections in the east of the country in which the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) is expected to garner around 30 percent of the vote.
The new plan follows a deadly stabbing attack in the western city of Solingen last Friday, allegedly by a Syrian asylum seeker suspected of being a member of the Islamic State jihadist group. The attack, which German Chancellor Olaf Scholz called “terrorism,” raised the political pressure to take a harder stance on immigration policy.
“I think we can present a proper package that responds appropriately to this terrible terrorist attack,” Interior Minister Nancy Faeser told reporters in Berlin during a joint press conference with Justice Minister Marco Buschmann.
The ministers vowed, among other things, to classify knife crimes as a reason for deportation, including to Syria and Afghanistan; to scrap benefits for asylum seekers the state deems should seek protection in the EU country they first entered under the Dublin Convention; and to remove protected status from refugees who leave Germany to visit their home countries without a compelling reason.
By cutting benefits for such “Dublin” cases, the coalition hopes to reduce migration figures.
According to the German government, only around 3,500 of the 25,000 asylum seekers who were obliged to apply for asylum in another member state were actually transferred there from Germany in the first half of 2024. The Solingen suspect, for example, was able to avoid being transferred to Bulgaria by hiding from the authorities until the relevant deadlines had expired.
In addition, a full ban on knives at public festivals and on public transport is to be introduced, while the police are to be allowed to carry out random searches for bladed weapons.
The new measures are to be implemented “as quickly as possible,” Buschmann said. The process is expected to take a couple of months, however, as the two ministries have to prepare draft laws that must then be adopted by the cabinet and voted on in both chambers of parliament.
Migration is a key concern among voters ahead of three state elections in eastern Germany in September. The far-right AfD, with its anti-immigration message, is leading — or close to leading — local polls in all three states.
In two state elections to be held this Sunday, in Saxony and Thuringia, all three parties of the national ruling coalition will struggle to win enough votes to reach the 5-percent threshold needed to make it into the state parliaments.
Germany has seen a rise in knife attacks in recent months, triggering a national debate on increased security controls and no-knife zones. Around 430 such attacks have taken place in the first half of 2024, according to figures from the federal police.