Category Archives: Refugees

Germany: Agreement Between Merkel and Seehofer

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This agreement below, between Angela Merkel and Horst Seehofer, was moments ago handed to the press and tweeted out by the CSU MP Dorothee Bär.

Original translation:

“In order to better regulate, control and prevent secondary migration, we come to this agreement:

  1. We agree to a new border regime at the German-Austrian border, which ensures that asylum seekers for whose asylum procedures other EU-countries are in charge, will be refused entry
  2. To do so, we will establish transit centres, from which the asylum seekers will be directly sent back to the countries in charge (refusing entry on the basis of the legal implication of non-entry). We do not want to act uncoordinated, but come to administrative agreements, or establish communication, with the concerned countries.
  3. In those cases where countries refuse administrative agreements, the rejection at the German-Austrian border will be on the basis of an agreement with the Republic of Austria.”

    The original document as it was handed out to the press

Merkel’s part in this agreement is one single sentence: “We do not want to act uncoordinated, but come to administrative agreements, or establish communication, with the concerned countries.” This allows her to save face, while still conceding to Seehofer.

The true issue at the core of this was whether Germany has got sovereign national borders and can refuse people entry. Merkel, who ideally would like for Germany to dissolve into a supranational, non-democratic EU superstate, had, again, denied national sovereignty two weeks ago (“EU law should always have priority over German law”, on “Anne Will” talkshow on Sunday, June 10), which sparked the crisis between her and conservative new Interior Minister Seehofer. The media onslaught that ensued against Seehofer was so strong that nobody really expected him to come out of this alive.

This is an important day in the fight of Germans for their right to national self-determination, and to even exist as a nation.

Angela Merkel on her way to a crisis meeting this morning.

Merkel’s constestor, former Bavarian premier and new German Interior Minister Seehofer.

German Government Crisis: Seehofer Suggests Resignation

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Angela Merkel’s challenger Horst Seehofer has announced to resign from his offices as German Interior Minster and head of the CSU, if no consensus can be reached over his demand to turn away illegal migrants at the border – a demand Merkel staunchly rejects.

Sunday’s CSU board meeting in Munich, photo: private/Facebook

On June 14, Merkel had asked Seehofer give her time to negotiate “European solutions” “with the same effect [as turning away illegal migrants at the border]” at this week’s European Summit (June 26.-27.).

The summit’s results were then presented to the German public as a full success; Merkel’s “European solution” was found; all countries had made concessions to Angela Merkel. No one in the German sphere seemed to realize that the negotiations were in fact a win for the countries who opposed migration (see Orban Wins At EU Summit: No One Takes Migrants They Don’t Want). Only yesterday, Saturday (June 30.), when Hungary, the Czech Republic and Poland sent out memos, refuting that they had made resolutions with Merkel, the German public slowly began to understand that they had been fooled.

Today’s CSU board meeting lasted until late in the night. Attendees passed details to the tabloid Bild: “Seehofer unmistakably made clear what he thought of Merkel’s negotiation results in Brussels: nothing.” He called the prior evening’s discussion with Merkel on the matter “pointless and ineffective”.

In the meantime, after Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic, Greece’s Yanis Varoufakis came out in strong terms about Angela Merkel’s “European Solutions”:

“There is no deal really, this is a typical EU fudge. They have agreed on phrasing. They celebrated it, but this hides that there was no agreement on the substance.
They gathered in Brussels to reform the Dublin agreement, which was never designed to cope with mass migration flows. Also to resolve secondary migration, which the CSU demanded action on and even put the Merkel’s government in jeopardy over it.
It is a complete failure of the European Union that has been packaged as a success, but that isn’t new, is it?”

Around 10PM, news agencies suddenly reported that Seehofer had just resigned from his office as Interior Minister and leader of the CSU. The Süddeutsche Zeitung, Germany’s equivalent of the Guardian or the Washington Post, and state TV, immediately published obituaries on Seehofer.

A board member of the CSU though messaged that Seehofer had not resigned but offered his resignation, to test if he had the CSU’s full support for challenging Merkel. Seehofer allegedly stated that he had three options: to give in to Merkel, which he refused; to challenge her, for which he needed the party’s support, or to resign. According to members, the CSU expressed their support.

But when Seehofer finally left the building, he told attending press that he would resign from all offices within the next three days if no consensus on turning away illegal migrants at the border was found.

The outcome of all of this is entirely unpredictable at the moment. The way Merkel’s team are detached from reality – the majority of the population support’s Seehofer’s position – reminds of the end days of the DDR though.

 

Munich: “Underage Refugees” Attack Emergency Doctor On Call, Smash Her Teeth Out

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Munich: Friday evening, two “underage refugees” attack emergency vehicle, badly wounding doctor on call. (Photo credit: Thomas Gaulke)

An original translation from Abendzeitung, Munich:

Drunk rioters injure emergency doctor
June 23., 2018 – 09:21 AM CET

According to first information by police at the scene, two unaccompanied underage refugees riot in Ottobrunn (suburb of Munich – translator). With a full Whiskey bottle, one of the two smashes in the side window of an emergency doctor’s car and wounds the emergency doctor.

Ottobrunn- Friday evening around 8:30PM, two underaged unaccompanied refugees attacked an emergency vehicle of the hospital Neuperlach.

According to first information by the police, one of the two smashed in the side window of the car with a full Whiskey bottle and struck the emergency doctor right in the face. The woman lost consciousness and lost several teeth. Then, the youth threw the bottle at the doctor’s driver who suffered injuries, too.

The emergency vehicle had pulled over at the old people’s home in Ottostraße, to assist the emergency brigade and responders of the Ottobrunn fire brigade, who were treating a person with a life-threatening condition in the old people’s home. The incident occurred while the fire brigade were already seeing the patient.

The obviously drunk duo – who had apparently been rioting moments before – fled, but was apprehended and overpowered by police a few hundred meters away. Allegedly, during this measure, several residents of Ottobrunn attacked the officers to help the alleged perpetrators, who were then taken in preliminary detention.

Merkur, Munich, provide a bit more context, 23.06.18 11:13AM CET (original translation):
Two youths (17 and 20), who are unaccompanied refugees, wanted to enter the Ottobrunn youth club with a trolley filled with alcoholic drinks after 8 PM. When one of the caretakers pointed out the alcohol prohibition, and called a colleague for help, the two drunk teenagers attacked the women, and then left the building.
At the same time, the Ottobrunn fire brigade had arrived at the nearby Hanns-Seidel-Haus, the old people’s home, to help a person with a life threatening condition. While the fire brigade had already entered the building, the emergency vehicle from the Neuperlach hospital arrived. In this moment, the 20-year-old attacked the car, and, from a distance of about 1.5 meters, threw a full Whiskey bottle into the side window of the passenger seat. It smashed the window, hit the emergency doctor who was sitting in the car in the face, and smashed out several of her teeth. She suffered a fractured jaw, a concussion, and cutting wounds in her face. The paramedic who was driving the car just suffered cut wounds from the window splinters.

Update: Police Think Syrian Set Leipzig House On Fire Intentionally, Wounding 16, Killing 1

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As we reported, a Syrian refugee set fire to an apartment house in Leipzig in the early morning hours of Good Friday, wounding 16, and killing one woman.

The Federal Prosecutor confirms to Bild newspaper that the man was arrested and charged with particularly grave arson, murder, and attempted murder. Police think that the arson was intentional. The man had set fire to a rubbish bin at the rear exit, so that the entire stairs and hallway caught fire within minutes, from the ground floor to the roof. The house’s entrance appears to have been blocked with a sofa.

According to neighbours, the Syrian regularly fought with his wife so bad that police came to intervene several times.

The woman who died in the flames is not yet identified, but is believed to be tenant Sandy B., 40 years old; while a yet unidentified man, who is in critical condition with utmost severe burns, is believed to be her partner.
The two who had to jump from the roof into the firefighters’ cushion, a man and a woman, suffered broken bones, but are otherwise fine.

What was left of the staircase collapsed Saturday night.

The fire spread through the hallway from the ground floor to the roof within minutes. Photo: Einsatzfahrten Leipzig

People locked on the roof jump down into the firefighters’ cushions. Photo: Silvio Buerger

The hallway collapsed the next day. Photo: Silvio Buerger

Aerial view of the house. Photo: Bild Zeitung

 

Germany: Syrian Sets House On Fire, 17 Wounded, 1 Dead

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A Syrian set fire to an apartment house in Leipzig in the early morning hours of Good Friday, killing one person and wounding 17. A local fire engine enthusiast, Einsatzfahrten Leipzig, filmed the following footage:

This next video by Bild shows the two who are locked on the roof jump down into the firefighters’ cushion:

Bild report 16 wounded, two of them critically, and one dead. 34 people lost their home.

When police searched the house on Friday afternoon with a thermographic camera, they found what they initially thought was a male body. But the autopsy later revealed that it was a female body. Police also found several dead pets in the house.

Police confirm that the arsonist is a 32-year-old Syrian, a resident of that very house, and that he will be charged with arson and murder.

Residents locked on the roof flash a torchlight to catch the firefighters’ attention. Photo: Einsatzfahrten Leipzig.

A woman hands a toddler to firefighters. Photo: Silvio Buerger

The wounded are taken to hospitals. Photo: Silvio Buerger

Deceased Pets lie in the street after the fire. Photo: Silvio Buerger

 

“We want everyone to see what was done to our daughter”

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Germany – Vivien, 24, was stabbed down and critically wounded by a 17-year-old Syrian refugee last Saturday, when she and her boyfriend were shopping for groceries in the small German town of Burgwedel (see report Bloody Weekend – Knife Attacks All Over Germany). She had to undergo emergency surgery and remained in critical condition.

Prosecution has opened an investigation against the boy for battery. His family, who came to Germany as refugees in 2013, issued a statement that they are sorry about the incident, however, “they want it investigated how it could come to him stabbing out”.

Vivien’s parents approached the newspaper Bild Zeitung. An original translation:

Vivien (24) was stabbed down and critically injured by a 17-year-old Syrian refugee when she was shopping.

The Parents of Knife-Victim Vivien (24) reproach:

“Everyone should see what was done to our daughter”

The 24-year-old woke up from her coma – this is what her lawyer and her boyfriend have to say.

By Mirko Voltmer, March 29, 2018

Hannover – sensors watch over her somatic functions, tubes sustain Vivien K. (24). The young woman is in intensive care – she was the victim of a knife-stabber after an argument in the supermarket.

“We want nothing more than our daughter to get well again. But we also want everyone to see what happened to her”, say Vivien’s parents.

The doctors had to remove her spleen, and part of her pancreas. Her ribs are broken. Four days after the knife attack, on Wednesday, she woke from the artificial coma.

Flashback: On Saturday, she and her boyfriend Domenic K. (25) were shopping a supermarket in Burgwedel (Lower Saxony), and happened upon two cousins (13, 14), who were allegedly wrestling. Vivien, who is a shop assistant, asked the two to stop it.

Outside, the couple met the two again, with a brother (17). He stabbed Vivien into the belly with a jackknife. Domenic: “I thank God that Vivien is still alive. The doctors said, two centimeters that made the difference between life and death.”

The alleged perpetrator is in custody and remains silent. He came to Germany as a Syrian refugee in 2013. He is charged with dangerous battery.

The suspect (17) on the way to the committing magistrate

According to a relative, Domenic pulled one of the children by the ear, before the attack.

The victim’s attorney Björn Nordmann: “In my preliminary assessment of the issue it is an attempted murder. The alleged perpetrator approved of my client’s possible death when he stabbed her brutally.”

A spokesman of the public Prosecutor: “Our investigations are at the beginning, we still have to interview witnesses. It is possible that we will then assess the issue differently.”

“I Delight in Watching Her Die”

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A 17-year-old Libyan refugee girl in Germany named Alaa was stabbed down and critically injured by her ”husband” and her brothers, who filmed the deed.

The brother who did the stabbing is currently standing trial for preparing an Islamic act of terror, and had just been released from custody on February 26.

Alaa’s family then sent the video to her alleged lover. In this version below, that was published by Bild newspaper, the scenes that actually show the critically wounded girl have been blackened out. She can only be heard begging for an ambulance, as she is pregnant – again. She had the first child from her twice-her-age “husband” when she was 16.

An original translation from Die Welt, Germany:

“I Delight in Watching Her Die”

A 17-year-old is stabbed down by her husband and her brother in an Islamic rite. Was it an attempted honor killing? It appears the family sent a disturbing mobile video to the victim’s boyfriend after the crime.

This act of violence is blood-curdling: Tuesday evening, a young woman is brutally stabbed down by her husband and her brother. She is critically injured. The two flee. Shortly thereafter, they are arrested on a train in Schweinfurt, 250 kilometers away.

Investigators assume a “relationship incident”, but for tactical reasons they initially did not disclose more. The 17-year-old girl from Libya is married to a 34-year-old Syrian by Islamic law, but not by German law. Both of them came to Germany as refugees.

Disturbing new details have now been disclosed. On Friday afternoon, police announced that it appears that before the deed the 17-year-old wanted to separate from her husband. Was it an attempted honor killing? The cultural and religious background is an important part of the investigations.

According to “Bild” newspaper, the young woman fell in love with an asylum seeker from neighboring Biberach. On the evening of the crime, the family was assembled in the parental home in Laupheim. After an argument escalated, the 20-year-old brother drove a knife into his sister’s chest and critically injured her.

Alleged phone video to the lover

In its Saturday edition the paper printed stills from a mobile video. In it, threatening male voices, and a whimpering woman can be heard.

Another brother — not the stabber — allegedly said “Can you see where I’m standing? I delight in watching her die, and smoke a cigarette whilst doing so.” The video was allegedly recorded in the nursery of the 17-year-old, and sent to the man from Biberach.

The victim was not fit for questioning on Friday. But she isn’t in critical condition any longer, the police spokesman replies to our inquiry. She is in stable condition. The criminal police are still investigating friends and family of those involved. The 34-year-old man and the 20-year-old brother of the badly injured woman are still in custody on suspicion of attempted murder.

The 20-year-old brother is an Islamist, apparently. He is currently standing trial for assisting in the preparation of a grave and subversive act of terror, and for perjury. According to the investigators, he was released from custody only on February 26 — shortly before the deed. The “Stuttgarter Nachrichten” report that the Libyan [husband — translator] had been “on the radar” of the special task force of Interior Minister Thomas Strobl (CDU), who is responsible for the deportation of particularly criminal foreigners and terror risks.

Honor killings in Germany

Crimes with a background of alleged violations of honor make the headlines times and again. In February 2005, the German-Turk Hatun Sürücü was shot dead at a bus stop in Berlin. The murder — allegedly committed in the name of honor — created ripples across Germany. Her youngest brother was sentenced to nine and a half years in youth detention.

In the case of the murder of the mother-of-six Hanaa S. from Solingen in 2015, the court established this January that it was a deed “to restore the family honor”.

Translator’s note:
This last paragraph by Die Welt, mentioning only two cases, is quite an underestimation. Ehrenmord.de, who track known cases of Sharia killings in Germany, list 12 attempted honor killings, two of them lethal, just for January 2018, and 77 cases in 2017, 45 of them deadly, others “only” leaving the survivor disfigured.

Alaa (r.): her brother stabbed the pregnant girl in the chest and slit open both sides of her mouth.

“Those people who ate with me, drank, danced, laughed – they talk about me as ‘stupid German whore’.”

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The following is a documentation of an interview with the German artist, activist for the rights of indigenous peoples, and UN advisor Rebecca Sommer, by the Polish website EuroIslam from January 18, 2018.
Rebecca used to support Muslim “refugees” in Germany, and describes how her experience made her gradually change her mind over core issues.
It is a long text but well worth the read. Please note that there is currently a mistranslation circulating, claiming that she said to she was moving to Poland. This is inaccurate; she said she knows Germans who are moving to Poland.

Thanks to Ava Lon for the translation.

Rebecca Sommer, Photo©Rebecca Sommer/Earthpeoples

Natalia Osten-Sacken: Rebecca, you’ve worked many years with refugees and immigrants, you’re a well-known human rights activist. Already before the big wave of immigration in 2015, you were well known for fighting for unlimited admission of these people to Germany. What influenced the change of your views?
Rebecca Sommer: I would like to point out that I have never fought for “unlimited” admission of migrants, because it is impossible for any country to adopt infinitely. I am a humanist and human rights activist. The first years I believed that people who come here are real refugees, happy that they will be safe now and that they will show a good faith in order to adapt here and to integrate. But with time, an unpleasant awakening came about step by step. The reasons for this were so complex that I just couldn’t ignore it anymore.

I believed that these medieval views would change over time. I placed great trust in our libertarian, equitable European values, and I naively thought that every person must delight in them and take them on.

For sure, one of the main turning points, as in many of us, was New Year’s Eve 2015 in Cologne. Then I finally had to admit to myself that this type of behavior describes the overwhelming majority of Muslims with whom I had to deal with in my life. It was the moment when I said to myself: “Rebecca, now you have to slow down, at least because you are women’s rights activist, with your responsibility to them as a woman.” I have tried to justify these constantly repeated patterns of behavior and thinking, their way of perceiving the world – which are based on their religion, Islam, and their culture – for example, in such a way that they are new here. I believed that these medieval views would change over time. I placed great trust in our libertarian, equitable European values, and I naively thought that every person must delight in them and take them on.
But after looking back through the years of repetitive experiences and myself in my work environment as a volunteer, I had to admit to myself that when it comes to Muslim Continue Reading →

Germany: “It Is Only A Woman”, Said Maria Ladenburger’s Murderer

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A report from the 18th day of the trial of Hussein Khavari, who killed and raped 19-year-old Maria Ladenburger on October 16, 2016. An original translation from Die Welt:

“It’s only a woman”, said Hussein K.

By Christine Kensche
January 26., 2017

More lies – and a peculiar view of women: At the trial of Hussein K. in the Maria L. murder case, Greek police officers report of their investigations. In 2013, K. had hurled a female student over a quay wall on Corfu.

The sun is setting at the horizon, the facades are shimmering in shades of terracotta, the sea is Greece-blue. A narrow sidewalk winds along the bay. View over a waist-high handrail: the quay wall is plunging ten meters, down there are rocks, waves, a narrow stripe of grit.

Over this handrail, Hussein K. had hurled a young woman. “The girl was lucky”, the police officer resumes. She landed on the stripe of gravel and broke her bones. If she had landed on the rocks, she would probably have been dead.

On this day 18 of the homicide case in Freiburg, holiday films are shown. Chief Prosecutor Eckart Berger took these films when he went to Corfu in his holidays. On this island, Hussein K. committed his first crime that went on records, before he came to Freiburg as an allegedly under-aged refugee and raped and murdered student Maria L.

Berger took the trouble so that the court can visualize the crime scene. Two police officers from Greece came and recall their investigations. What they have to tell from Hussein K.’s interrogation, sounds all too familiar with his statements at the Freiburg district court. It is the same pattern of lies – and a peculiar picture of women.

Hussein K. and his first victim met in the early morning hours of May 26., 2013, in Corfu city. Spyridoula C., who was a 20 year and a student at that time, describes it as following: It was around 2:20 AM when she walked home from a bar at the promenade, and saw K. approaching on the other side of the street.

Bitter laughter in the auditorium

He crossed the street blazingly fast and started punching her, grabbed her handbag and pushed her to the ground. Then she saw the headlights of a car and screamed for help. K. grabbed her and lifted her over the handrail, headfirst. C. grasped on to the fence and begged him not to hurt her. Hussein K. told her to shut up. He detached her grasp and threw her over the handrail.

There is a bitter laughter in the auditorium when the Greek officers describe his arrest. He was carrying a document that identified him as an asylum seeker from Afghanistan, birthday: 01.01.1996. He had stated Nov. 11, 1999 to German authorities. The question of age is of critical importance in this trial for the degree of penalty.

The Greek investigators had managed that same night to arrest K. The student was able to describe him quite well, and besides, she had noticed that his trousers were wet. Even though he had changed clothes in the meantime, investigators found the grey Nike sneakers, now wet, too, which Spyridoula C. had described.

In the interrogations, Hussein K. got tangled up in contradictions, the two officers report. For example, he had alleged that he was drunk and had wanted to clean himself in the sea. “He definitely wasn’t drunk”, says the chief of investigations. He thinks that K. wanted to rob the student’s handbag, and then, when cars came and he feared discovery, he threw her down the quay wall. Later then he wanted to see if she was still lying on the bay.

But at that point, the gravely injured 20-year-old had already managed to drag herself home, half unconscious. At a confrontation in the hospital, she identified Hussein K.

K. confessed. But his “confessions” is a concoction of lies and half-truths, just „like the one he served at the start of the Freiburg trial. Yes, he and the student had met on the street to the harbor. But she got scared of him for no reason at all and suddenly started screaming. He “pushed her out of the way” in order to be able to walk past her on the narrow promenade.

“It is only a woman”

Sebastian Glathe, Hussein K.’s attorney, repeatedly probes why there was no attorney at the interrogation back then. K. renounced an attorney, says the chief of investigations. Why would he have done that, asks Glathe. “Maybe he thought he would not get sentenced anyway”, replies the police officer. Hussein K. was “cool” and “indifferent” during the interrogation, he says. At one point, he commented: “But it is only a woman”.

A Greek court sentenced Hussein K. to ten years prison, according to youth criminal code, for robbery and attempted murder. But in an amnesty, K. was released already in October 2015 and came to Germany. The Freiburg lawsuit is prolonged, among other reasons, for the testimony of the Greek officers. They are to help the decision in an important point: preventive detention.

In order to be able to impose it, the court needs to prove that the accused has got a so-called leaning to grave crimes, and will be dangerous in the future, too. For this, experts analyze the past: which crimes did the suspect already commit? How did he proceed? The analysis of the background is to give clues as to how he will act in the future.

The preventive detention needs to be imposed in the verdict, or at least reserved. It is not a punishment but meant to protect society of a perpetrator who will still be dangerous after serving his sentence. Psychiatrists will evaluate every two years if the arrested person still poses a risk. He will remain in detention as long as the prognosis for him is negative – in theory, this can be until his death.

So there is a lot at stake for Hussein K. He seems to understand that, unlike normally, on this day, he often leans over to interpreter and attorney and whispers to them. Admittedly, it appears that there were no sexual motivations for his crime on Corfu; at least his victim did not notice anything like that. But the psychiatric expert will have taken note of the indifference and brutality with which K. committed this earlier crime.

There is another striking detail that had surfaced on an earlier day of the trial. When the German investigators analyze the Facebook profile of Hussein K., they discover a picture of a werewolf towering over an undressed woman.

Judge Kathrin Schenk wants to know why he chose that motive. “I googled wolf”, replied the accused. But now the Greek investigators describe the clothes that Hussein K. wore back then: in that night in May 2013, when he threw a woman down a cliff, he wore a black T-shirt with the face of a wolf.

The werewolf picture that Hussein Khavari had posted on his Facebook profile. Source: Facebook

Hussein Khavari, posing on Facebook. Source: Facebook

Medical student Maria Ladenburger. Source: Facebook

 

Cottbus: As Germans Take To The Streets To Protest Migrant Violence, City Announce They Won’t Take In Any More “Refugees”

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Cottbus: two knife-attacks by Syrian “youths” started a series of events in the city in former East Germany that would have been unthinkable in the west.

Earlier this afternoon, between 1,500 and 2,000 citizens took to the streets to protest migrant violence:

The city decided that they won’t take in any new refugees anymore for the time being, and the interior minister of Brandenburg expressed a warning to Berlin: federal politics should think through “family reunification” better.

Two Syrians gave a letter to the mayor of Cottbus in which they apologized for the behavior of their compatriots, said that this sort of behavior was not acceptable in Syria, either; and asked Syrian refugees to behave:
“Dear Syrians, dear refugees, we are guests here, we must accept the rules, and be respectful. Germany took us in while our neighbor countries closed their doors. Here, we get everything we need for a new life. Please don’t forget that and behave!”

Photo: Peggy Kompalla / Lausitzer Rundschau

The two recent knife-attacks (see Syrian “Youths” Attack Couple, When Wife Refuses To “Show Respect” and Another Day, Another Knife Attack At Cottbus Shopping Center) weren’t the only incidents involving Syrian refugees. A speaker at the protest, Birgit Bessin of the AfD, mentioned two other attacks and the murder of a 82-year-old pensioner.

There was no leftist counter-protest, and the local newspaper, Lausitzer Rundschau, reported objectively.

Photo: Michael Helbig, Lausitzer Rundschau

 

 

Germany: Deportation Escalates When Refugee Seizes Gun

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An original translation from Haller Kreisblatt, H/T Crossware:

Shots Fired At Police Action in Refugee Accommodation in Borgholzhausen

Andreas Eickhoff,Nicole Donath,Christina Zimmermann, January 18., 2018

Borgholzhausen. There were dramatic scenes during a police action in a refugee accommodation in Borgholzhausen at 4 in the morning. The officers were deployed because a married couple from Azerbaijan was to be deported. When two police officers, an employee of the foreigners’ office Gütersloh, a physician, and a security guard entered the apartment of the couple, their two adult daughters, and visitors, were there, too. A brawl ensued. Then the conflict escalated, one of the women managed to seize the weapon of one of the police officers. Shots were fired, but they did not wound anyone.

The two police officers and the physician managed to escape from the apartment, but the employee of the foreigners’ office, and the security guard did not. The family barricaded themselves in the apartment with the two. Police sent out an emergency alert.

Special forces were deployed. Before the SEK [German special police force] arrived on site, the people involved surrendered. The woman had to undergo emergency medical care: apparently, she had wounded herself with a knife, and was taken to a hospital in Halle. The man was taken away in handcuffs. One of the daughters and the visitor of the family were taken into police custody, too.

Apart from police and SEK, two ambulances from Halle, the chief emergency doctor, and the chief of the emergency services were on-site. Investigations are ongoing..

The county of Gütersloh has now made a statement on the incident of Thursday morning. In a press statement, county commissioner Sven-Georg Adenauer announced that the consequent deportation would still be carried out. “It would send out a fatal signal if violent resistance were to change that”, he said.

The deportation had been carefully organized by the foreigners’ office, and was accompanied by police and a security guard, because one had expected difficulties, due to the persistent and explicit refusal to voluntarily leave the country, said Thomas Kuhlbusch, department head of health, order and law.

According to the county of Gütersloh, the family had first entered Germany in 2004 under a false name, and – after their asylum application had legally bindingly been rejected for being obviously unfounded – had left Germany 2011 under the impression of pending deportation. In 2012, the oldest daughter applied for a visa, and received a residence permit, as she had skilled employment.

The married couple then, again, illegally entered from Azerbaijan in 2013 with their youngest daughter. While the asylum applications of the parents remained without success, and their duty to leave the country became legally binding, the youngest daughter, too, received a residence permit due to special rules of the alien law and her successful integration.

The fact that the deportation was to take place so early in the morning was, according to the district of Gütersloh, due to the available flights and the flight schedules: The flight for the married couple was to board at 1.40 PM in Frankfurt am Main to Baku. “The authorities in the countries of arrival, in this case in Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan, normally want to get the paperwork done on the day of arrival”, the district announced. Only starting early here makes this possible. In this case, even medical care for the husband in Baku had been organized, a physician was to receive him directly at the airport.

Translator’s note:
Haller Kreisblatt provide more background in a follow-up. Have your handkerchiefs ready, as it is so inspiring:

“(…) left the country in 2011 due to the pending deportation.

This must have been tough especially for the daughters of the couple who felt at home in Germany. The older one of the two, who lives in Bielefeld these days, was always taking a stand for other people, she was the pupils’ speaker at the lower secondary school Halle, settling disputes, and helping the younger kids, and was even awarded with the “Sozial-Award” of the Volksbank for her social commitment.
An ordinary, friendly family, their former acquaintances say. But in fact, according to Haller Kreisblatt information, the parents have police records, especially for theft.”

Hungarian Government To Impose Punitive Tax On Foreign-Funded NGOs Supporting Illegal Immigration

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An original translation from Die Welt:

„STOP-SOROS-PACKAGE“

Hungarian Government Plans Punitive Taxes For Refugee Helpers

Viktor Orbán continues to proceed rigorously against refugees and their supporters within the country. Now, NGOs are to be sanctioned by a tax. It is not the first measure of this kind.


Hungary’s right-wing-nationalist government plans a new punitive tax for NGOs which help refugees and mainly cover their expenses by foreign donations. This is what the Hungarian Interior Minister Sandor Pinter announced on Wednesday after a government meeting. The tax will be 25 percent.

The measure is part of a planned package of laws intended to regulate the work of NGOs which are associated with the so-called “Soros-Plan”. The “Stop-Soros-Package” further specifies that organizations which help, as the motion calls them, “illegal migrants”, will have to register at court. Foreign workers of such organizations might be expelled. The draft bill is to be voted in by parliament after discussion by different councils and leagues.

Organizations will have to register
Since 2017 already a law is in place that forces all civil organizations who receive more than 24,000 Euros per year in foreign aids to register with court. They will also have to carry the specification “foreign-aided organization” in all publications. The law is currently subject to a violation of contract proceeding by the EU.

The “Soros Plan” is at the center of a month-long crusade by prime minister Viktor Orbán’s government. He accuses the US billionaire George Soros, who supports numerous civil organizations, of intending to “flood” Europe with migrants to destroy its “Christian and national identity”. There is no proof for such a plan by the Hungarian-born philanthropist.

26-Year-Old Female Clan Leader Makes Fortune By Trafficking More Than 100 Syrians To Germany Via Poland

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An original translation from Lausitzer Rundschau:

January 17., 2018
Police Raid

Family trafficks more than 100 Syrians to Germany via Poland

On Wednesday, police arrested a person in Berlin during a raid. Investigations against a Syrian-Polish gang are ongoing.

Berlin. German and Polish investigators are proceeding with raids against nine suspects from a family clan. Two persons were arrested in Germany. There is a search ongoing for another person. The charges: organized trafficking of foreigners. By Andreas Blaser

It was still dark when police chief Markus Pfau gave the mission order to more than 170 officers of the Federal Police. Their target was a Syrian-Polish gang of traffickers, who allegedly trafficked more than 100 persons from Syria to Germany. As Pfau, leader of the investigating Federal Police office for crime fighting in Halle says to Rundschau, two people were arrested in the Germany-wide raids. It is a 26-year-old female Polish national of Syrian ethnicity, and a 40-year-old Syrian. They have been brought before the committing magistrate and are now in custody. A search for a third person is still ongoing, as well as for three more Polish nationals. There are a total of nine suspects, but not all of them are wanted with an arrest warrant. The members of the gang are organized in a family-like structure, according to Federal Police. Head of the traffickers, who seemed to have been organizing the operations, is the 26-year-old female Polish national who was arrested in Germany. She is the main accused.

Most of the accused are from Syria, but have migrated to Poland already years ago, and have grown up there. Some of them married Polish citizens and therefore hold dual citizenship. According to investigations by Federal Police, the gang of traffickers begun approximately in the second half of 2016 trafficking Syrians to Germany. Their method: The Syrians, who hadn’t been living in their homeland anymore, but in the meantime in the Gulf region in the United Arab Emirates, some of them for quite a long time, organized Polish tourist visas – but with false details and with the help of the traffickers. From the Gulf region, they flew to Poland – very likely to the capital of Warsaw – and then travelled on overland to Germany. The large Autobahn transits in Frankfurt at the Oder, Görlitz-Ludwigsdorf, but also Guben, Forst and Podrosche in Saxony were probably used. Once in Germany, the Syrians applied for asylum, in order to be able to claim the benefits associated with it.

The investigations of Federal Police and Polish Border Protection might be able to shed new light on the repeated cases of trafficking in the border regions of Brandenburg and Saxony. Over the past months and years, large groups of refugees have repeatedly been apprehended who apparently illegally crossed the  border. Most of these were Iraqis and Russians from Islamic Chechnya though.

According to Federal Police’s statements, the traffickers received about € 8,000 per person, which means that, according to the current state of investigations, the gang made about € 300,000. But if the police’s estimate of about 100 trafficked persons turns out correct, the gang’s earnings will be remarkably more. The profit explains why the traffickers issued strong pressure to receive their margin. The current investigations of police end in the first quarter of 2017, which suggests more cases in later activity of the gang.

Even when the current police action of wednesday was focused on Berlin, the officers were busy until afternoon in almost all German states. There, and in Berlin, mobile phones, digital storage devices and a large sum of money were seized. Police spoke of “significant assets”.

According to police and judiciary, the accused are charged with the professional and gang-like trafficking of foreigners. In addition, there are investigations against several accused for the suspicion of social fraud and fraudulent application for asylum. Even some of the members of the Syrian-Polish family are suspected to have applied as politically persecuted asylum seekers in Germany.

Europe: Multi-Resistant Tuberculosis Pathogens Found In Refugees

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An original translation from Die Welt:

Multiresistant Tuberculosis Pathogens Found In Refugees

Tuberculosis Bacteria

By Claudia Sewig, January 16., 2018

Scientists substantiated the outbreak of a multiresistant strain of Tuberculosis. It was discovered in 29 refugees who had come to Germany via the Horn of Africa.

The tuberculosis trend which had been declining for many years has turned around. This is what the Robert-Koch-Institut (RKI) in Berlin had announced at World Tuberculosis Day 2017, pointing out a relation with current migration movements. Scientists at the National Reference Centre (NRZ) at the Borstel research center pat(district Segeberg) managed to substantiate a Europe-wide outbreak of a multiresistant strain of Tuberculosis with 29 refugees. The strain showed a remarkable combination of resistance to four different antibiotics.

The increase of cases with persons with migration background caused the NRZ scientists to conduct further research. In general, newly arriving refugees are screened for transmittable diseases in the entry exam according to paragraph 62 of asylum law (AsylG). This includes an x-ray of the respiratory tract, which can determine a tuberculosis infection. But only ten percent of the people who are infected with the pathogen become ill – half of them in the first year after infection, the other half even later.

Since the law for protection against infection (IfSG) was introduced in January 2001, numerous characteristics of each tuberculosis patient are recorded and, in anonymised form, transferred by the 400 health offices in Germany via the 16 land offices to the Robert Koch Institute.

Refugees came over Horn of Africa
The research center Borstel now announces in a publication in the professional journal „The Lancet Infectious Diseases“ that the researchers from Schleswig-Holstein and their colleagues of the National Reference Center for Mycobacteria (NZM) Switzerland identified a hitherto unknown Tuberculosis pathogen in 2016.

The moleculobiological examination in combination with patient interviews enabled the scientists to partially reconstruct the chain of infection. The data pointed to the infection to have occurred before the arrival i Europe, in a Libyan refugee camp at Bani Walid.

It is likely that the strain developed from a clone of a tuberculosis strain that is common at the Horn of Africa, and developed the critical combination of resistancies. All 29 patients from seven European countries were refugees who had migrated to Europe via the Horn of Africa.

There were no refugees from Hamburg, Schleswig-Holstein or Lower Saxony [i.e. northern Germany] among the 14 cases in Germany, according to the statement. „The patients are mainly unaccompanied underage refugees who registered in Baden-Württemberg“, says Dr. Katharina Kranzer, chief of the NRZ at the research center Borstel. But as the outbreak was still ongoing, more cases might surface.

In September 2015, in what has been the largest influx of refugees to Hamburg until now, nine people were precautionally taken to the University Hospital Hamburg-Eppendorf (UKE). A paramedic had noticed, in a tent at the main strain station, symptoms of the highly infectious disease with three refugees who were waiting to continue their journey there. They could be released from the UKE only hours later.

70 percent of those fallen ill are foreign nationals
“It was only through analysis of the genome that the strain of the outbreak was unambiguously identified”, says Professor Stefan Niemann, author of the study and leader of the research team molecular and experimental mycobateriology at the research center Borstel, and of the tuberculosis department of the German Center for Infection Research. “But in order to be able to fully benefit from the advantages of this technology it needs to be incorporated into routine screening and monitoring for tuberculosis.”

Niemann refers to himself and his colleagues as genome detectives, having been analyzing the genome of the tuberculosis bacterium. “In order to be able to determine the tuberculosis strain, we developed a quick test,” says Niemann. Additionally, in Borstel, in a pilot project, all laboratory samples from tuberculosis patients from Hamburg, Hannover and Frankfurt are being analyzed. “We have material from Hamburg from 1996 on”, says the researcher, hoping that other cities will join in on the project.

According to RKI, a total of 5915 cases of tuberculosis were registered in 2016, meaning 7.2 newly falling sick per 100,000 inhabitants. The analysis by nationality showed visible differences in the risk of illness: The incidence with foreign nationals was 42.6 per 100,000 inhabitants and thus was 19 times higher than in the German population (incidence 2.2).

This discrepancy has increased, compared to the previous year (factor 16.6). The difference was especially notable in young adults. Altogether, 30.9 percent of those who had fallen sick had German nationality; 69.1 were foreign nationals..

The analysis by country of birth shows that the number of foreign-born patients steadily increased over the past years, and constituted three quarters or 74.3% of all registered cases in 2016. The most frequently stated countries are Somalia, Eritrea, Afghanistan, Syria and Romania. “But it would be wrong to assume that you can’t become infected by tuberculosis in Germany, and that it is always transmitted abroad”, points out Niemann. “30 percent of the cases occur via transmission in Germany.”

Germany: Another Day, Another Knife Attack At Cottbus Shopping Center

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Another stabbing attack occurred today at a shopping center in Cottbus. Last Friday, Syrian teenagers attacked a German couple there (Syrian “Youths” Attack Couple, When Wife Refuses To “Show Respect”).

An original translation from Lausitzer Rundschau:

Another Knife-Attack at Blechen-Carré in Cottbus

January 17, 2018

Police Action at Blechen-Carré in Cottbus. Paramedics tend to an injured person. Photo: Medienhaus Lausitzer Rundschau

Cottbus. On Wednesday, another knife attack took place at Blechen-Carré in Cottbus. A Syrian youth wounded a 16-year-old from Cottbus. Police are still hunting for the perpetrator.
By Bodo Baumert

As police announce tonight, the incident took place just after 3 PM. The officers were alerted to a grievous battery at the street tram station Stadtpromenade. “According to first investigations, a brawl ensued after a verbal confrontation and an insult. From a group of Syrian and German youths between 16 and 18 years old, who superficially knew each other from school and leisure time, a 16-year-old boy from Cottbus was pressed against a standing tram by a Syrian youth”, says police spokesman Torsten Wendt. In doing so, a knife slash was inflicted upon the left side of the youth’s face. After the incident, the 16-year-old ran into Blechen-Carré, looking for help. “The victim was tended to by paramedics there and then taken to CTK hospital for further treatment”, says Wendt.

Police did not announce further details. Criminal Police took over investigations. A police search for the suspect, who is still on the loose, and his accomplices, is still ongoing. Several witnesses of the incident were already interviewed in the early evening hours.

Translator’s note:
In answer to Friday’s knife attack on the married German couple, one of the Syrian attackers, a 15-year-old, was expelled from the city of Cottbus and the whole parish, along with his father. The head of the municipal public order office stated that this was the first time ever the city has taken to this harsh measure, as the youth was already prior known for violent offenses: “We declare the integration of the youth a failure.”
Also, an attack by unknown perpetrators on a refugee accommodation was reported.
As a response to Friday’s stabbing, even before this new stabbing, police have already announced to increase their presence.