Even Germany is talking tough on illegal immigration

The words “zero” – this is how much the German government has Told that in the future it will spread to the asylum seekers arriving from another EU country. The leader called for a fight against the unlawful migration following the detention of a Syrian migrant for a deadly knife attack last weekend. 
 
It is a Right-wing policy from a Left-wing government and this was said at the right time when there are state elections going on today in Thuringia and Saxony the first in the former East Germany. In particular, immigration and safety are contentious political topics, and these government’s statements may be insufficient to avoid a catastrophe for the coalition parties in the elections. 
 
The so-called “tough measures” that has Interior Minister Nancy Faeser announced on Thursday plans to reduce benefits for individuals who have no legal basis to be in Germany. “Nobody will starve or sleep in the streets,” Faeser noted, adding that ‘“further support”, however, will be reduced “to absolutely nothing. ” Only deportations will remain. 
 
Some could be inclined to think that it is not too big of a departure from the current legislation. Dublin rules of the EU mean that the first country which the asylum seekers arrived at is the one that takes responsibility for them. This also applies to the 26-year-old Syrian suspect of stabbing deaths of three people. He had been due for deportation to Bulgaria where he first visa to the Schengen country but had avoided it. Reporters asked Scholz how, and the chancellor answered, “That is what I would like to know, too. ” 
 
Whichever way we look at the proposed changes in the law, they are not the barbaric U-turn they look like. There is no plan to stop people, say, at the border, which the opposition, for example, insisted on despite knowing that this would violate the law, most likely. 
 
There is however no doubt that this is a change of position on the part of the government. As a government that finally took office in 2021, its coalition treaty committed to faster-track citizenship paths alongside other measures in an express ‘paradigm shift’ in immigration and asylum policy. Now Scholz was quoted by the German magazine Der Spiegel saying the question of migration is like a greatwheel to be turned and referring to mass deportation ofillegal immigrants as an ‘ambitious aim’. 
 
The first deportation flight to Afghanistan since the Taliban grabbed power again was launched on the 28 convicted criminals on Friday. On board were among others: a boy, who had fled to Germany as an unaccompanied refugee and then sexually assaulted an 11-year-old girl, a 160-time criminal, and a man, who had joined other members of a gang in anally raping a 14-year-old girl. Each of these criminals received 1,000 Euros from the taxpayer in the hope that this will make the deportations impossible to contest. 
 
Speaking at an election event in Leipzig, the largest city of Saxony, Scholz said, “This is a clear sign: those who commit crimes cannot rely on the fact that we will not be able to deport them. 
 
That’s the message to the important audience. According to the poll in Saxony, only 7 per cent of the population want to vote for the SDP led by the chancellor candidate Scholz. The far right’s Alternative für Deutschland party is at about 30 percent here and in the neighbouring state of Thuringia. 
 
Whether Scholz’s intensification of words and deeds will be convincing for the voters is rather doubtful. Most of the violent criminals who sneaked into Germany campaigning as refugees are still walking the streets. On Tuesday another knife attack was reported when a Somalian man reportedly attempted to attack another individual with a knife in a supermarket in a small town in Thuringia. It was said that the attacker had prior criminal records including violent crimes but there seemed to be no restrictions whatsoever on his movements. 
 
People remain vulnerable to threats in their environment and it is doubtful that Scholz is-right when he says that “we can decide who comes to us and who doesn’t. ”