What are the rules for asylum seekers in Germany?

Wave of Horror: 4 attacks hit Germany in one week

While none of the attacks are related, at least two appear to have been carried out by asylum seekers.

Sunday"s bombing, which killed only the attacker but injured 15 others, was carried out by a 27-year-old Syrian national in the southern city of Ansbach. The attacker"s application for asylum had been rejected but he was able to stay in the country anyway.

Just hours before, another 21-year-old Syrian asylum seeker killed a woman in a machete attack in Reutlingen.The country was already reeling from a shooting spree in Munich on Friday by an 18-year-old German-Iranian that left nine people dead. That attacker was not an asylum seeker -- he was born and raised in Munich.And last Monday, a 17-year-old carried out an ax attack on board a train outside of Wurzburg. He was originally reported to be an Afghan refugee, but his nationality and refugee status have since come into question.

As Germany grapples with an extraordinary week of violence, critics have raised concerns over the system for admitting and settling asylum seekers and migrants from war-ravaged countries.

Here are some questions answered about how the system works:

Who can stay?

Sunday"s suicide bomber entered Germany two years ago and his application for asylum had been rejected, according to authorities.

But he was able to remain in the country, as rejected applicants cannot legally be deported to a place where they face serious harm -- Syria"s war zone is clearly one of them.

This leaves the bomber, and many more asylum seekers like him, in a state of limbo, unable to gain residential status or return to their homeland.

"While they wait for an appeal to go through or a change in their circumstances, they"re also not permitted to work or receive benefits," explained CNN"s Tim Lister, who estimated that tens of thousands of migrants in Germany were in this position.

How does it work?

On entering Germany, refugees are placed in a reception center, where a long procedure for asylum gets underway.

While applications are being considered by the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees (BAMF), asylum seekers are given temporary rights to stay while their case is heard.

"If neither asylum nor refugee protection is granted, the BAMF examines whether there are grounds for a deportation ban -- this can be an extensive review," said Lister.

Meanwhile, those granted asylum status receive a temporary residence permit and are given the same status as Germans within the social insurance system -- meaning they are entitled to social welfare, child benefits, integration allowances and language courses.

Why Bavaria?

Many of these attacks, including the Munich shootings, happened in or near the southeastern German state of Bavaria, which is the first point of contact in the country for many Middle Eastern migrants arriving through Greece and then the Balkans.

"The Munich residents were really the ones in Bavaria who came out with big placards saying "welcome refugees" -- there was a huge movement to accept refugees at the time," explained CNN"s Berlin-based correspondent Atika Shubert.

"I think that probably now a lot of people might be starting to think: "Well, we welcomed a lot of refugees, but is this now coming back to harm us?""

Since the initial influx of refugees, there has been a concerted effort by the German government to spread them beyond Bavaria to hostels and camps across the country.

What does the public think?

During a memorial for the victims of the Munich shooting over the weekend, Shubert found a number of people questioning whether the recent string of attacks was due to an increase in refugee numbers.

"Even though these attacks are unrelated -- and one was carried out by a German-born national -- the public in part see it as a wider threat brought about by the influx of refugees," said Shubert.

"On a normal day, this is not how people feel," she continued. "But because you"ve got some of these attacks perpetrated by refugees, it"s playing into their worst fears."

Against this backdrop, the far-right political group Patriotic Europeans Against the Islamisation of the West -- known as Pegida -- will also be capitalizing on any resentment of foreigners.

What does this mean for Merkel?

Chancellor Angela Merkel"s plan to set aside 6 billion euros ($6.8 billion) to house and care for 800,000 new refugee applicants last year is coming under greater scrutiny from the public.

"When the refugee crisis initially started, people were already skeptical that the government had the ability to actually handle the sheer numbers that were arriving," said Shubert.

"So when you see these violent attacks, it compounds this feeling that Merkel may have had good intentions by opening the door, but that there was no plan to adequately deal with the influx."

CNN"s Tim Lister and Atika Shubert contributed to this report.

Source: http://www.cnn.com/2016/07/25/europe/germany-attacks-asylum-seekers-refugees/

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Germany attacks: What is going on?

Germany: what we know so far on Munich attack
Image copyright Getty Images Image caption The incidents included a suicide bombing in Ansbach

Germany is reeling from a series of four violent attacks in a week in its south.

Ten people have been killed and dozens more injured in separate gun, bomb, axe and machete attacks. Three were in Bavaria and one in Baden-Wuerttemberg.

The authorities say they were not linked - but do they herald a new era of insecurity for the country?

German press concern at spate of violence

What has happened?

On 18 July, a teenage Afghan refugee hacked at passengers on a train in Wuerzburg with an axe and knife, wounding five. He was shot dead by police.

On 22 July, a German teenager of Iranian heritage shot dead nine people in Munich before shooting himself dead.

On 24 July, a 21-year-old Syrian refugee killed a woman with a machete and wounded five other people as he fled before being arrested.

Later that day, a 27-year-old Syrian whose refugee application had been refused blew himself up outside a bar in Ansbach. Fifteen people were wounded.

Were they terror attacks?

The attack in Wurzburg has been claimed by so-called Islamic State (IS) while the Ansbach bomber had videos on his phone showing him pledging allegiance to the group, Bavaria"s interior minister said.

The attacker"s bomb was packed with metal fragments and he had been attempting to gain entry to a music festival which more than 2,000 people were attending.

However, police have ruled out a political motive for the killings in Munich.

Image copyright AP Image caption Nine mostly young people were killed in Munich

Gunman David Ali Sonboly was inspired by other mass shootings that had no political motivation, such as a school massacre carried out by 17-year-old Tim Kretschmer in Baden-Wuerttemberg in 2009.

Sonboly carried out his attack on the fifth anniversary of the 77 murders by far-right extremist Anders Behring Breivik in Norway.

Investigators in Reutlingen said the Syrian machete attacker knew his victim and the attack was probably to do with their relationship.

Any links?

German government spokeswoman Ulrike Demmer said the attacks were not connected and did not show a "consistent pattern".

But Raffaello Pantucci from the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) says the first attacks may have influenced what was to follow.

"Was the Ansbach bomber waiting for the right moment because all these other things were happening? It would not surprise me to find out that some activity was accelerated," he said.

Did mental illness play a role?

Sonboly had a history of mental illness. He had spent two months as an inpatient at a mental care facility in 2015, was depressed and feared contact with others, the Munich prosecutor"s office said.

Image copyright EPA Image caption The attacker in Reutlingen was arrested after killing a woman

The suicide bomber in Ansbach had also spent time living in a mental care facility and had twice attempted to take his own life, officials said.

In Reutlingen, the attacker also showed signs of being mentally disturbed.

He was also already known to police for assault, theft and drugs offences, police said.

Is the refugee background relevant?

The big influx of refugees to Germany was already controversial, so the fact that three of the attackers arrived as refugees is likely to sharpen criticism further.

The German government has already attempted to deflect this, saying the risk of someone being a perpetrator of terrorism is not greater among refugees than among the general population.

"Most of the terrorists who committed attacks in Europe in the past months were not refugees," said Ms Demmer.

Image copyright EPA Image caption "Not in my name" - refugees in Wuerzburg protest against the attack by a 17-year-old asylum seeker

However, there were likely to be a few individuals with "psychopathic tendencies" as well as links to criminal and terror networks among such a large group of people, Mr Pantucci said.

Should Germany expect more attacks?

Germany has not yet suffered a massive terrorist attack of the type seen in Paris and Nice - but that does not mean it is not a target, Mr Pantucci says.

Returning jihadists are known to have told investigators that the IS group was keen to recruit in Germany and the UK to boost its ability to carry out attacks in those countries.

"Their networks in these countries are not as close to criminal networks or as substantial as in francophone countries such as France and Belgium," he says.

"Most Muslims in Germany are of Turkish origin and while there are Turkish jihadists present, it is more of an Arab story and has deeper roots in France and Belgium."

Are the German authorities ready?

The country has different police and intelligence agencies for each region as well as federal agencies and this bureaucratic layering could allow plots to "slip through" if intelligence is not shared effectively, Mr Pantucci says.

Image copyright AFP/getty Image caption IS has said it wants to target Germany and claimed the Wuerzburg attacker acted for the group

A review of French intelligence has already found that attacks there could have been prevented if different forces and agencies had communicated with one another.

Efforts to disrupt plots could also be hobbled because of German legislation preventing agencies from eavesdropping on citizens in the same way as their counterparts in the UK and US routinely do, Mr Pantucci says.

The German government is currently attempting to broaden the scope of the intelligence service, the Bundesnachrichtendienst, to collect data, but a proposed new law has not yet been passed.

Source: http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-36882445

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Islamic State flag found in room of German train attacker

Germany v Lithuania - Full Game - FIBA U20 European Championship 2016

MUNICH Police found a hand-painted Islamic State flag and a text written partly in Pashto in the room of a young Afghan refugee who attacked passengers on a train in southern Germany with an axe, a state minister said on Tuesday.

Bavarian Interior Minister Joachim Herrmann said it was too early to say whether the youth was a member of Islamic State or any other militant group. Islamic State claimed responsibility for the attack, according to its Amaq news agency.

"We are aware of the claim of responsibility by Islamic State, but...the investigation has not produced any evidence thus far that would indicate this young man was part of an Islamist network," Herrmann told a news conference.

The 17-year-old severely wounded four Hong Kong residents, one of whom remains in a critical condition, on the train late on Monday, and then injured a local woman after fleeing before police shot him dead.

The attack took place days after a Tunisian delivery man plowed a truck into crowds of Bastille Day revelers in the southern French city of Nice, killing 84. Islamic State has also claimed responsibility for that incident.

The case is likely to deepen worries about so-called "lone wolf" attacks in Europe and could put political pressure on German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who has welcomed hundreds of thousands of migrants to Germany over the past year.

A leader of the anti-immigrant Alternative for Germany (AfD) said Merkel and her supporters were to blame for the dangerous security situation because their "welcoming policies had brought too many young, uneducated and radical Muslim men to Germany".

MOTIVES

Herrmann said people who knew the attacker had described him as a "quiet and balanced person who went to the mosque for important holidays, but wasn"t necessarily there every week."

"He was described as a devout Muslim, but not in any way one who was a radical or fanatic," Herrmann added.

At least one witness reported that the attacker, who had been living with a foster family in the nearby town of Ochsenfurt, had shouted "Allahu Akbar" (G*d is greatest).

Herrmann told Reuters TV that a hand-painted IS flag was found among his belongings when police searched his home, as well as a text that included references to Islam and the "need to resist", according to an initial translation from the Afghan language of Pashto.

He said the text was subject to interpretation, and stressed that the attack was no reason to cast suspicion on other refugees or for Germans to stop living their lives normally.

"Some things clearly point to an Islamist background, but there is no evidence at this point connecting him to any other individuals, or indicating whether he radicalized himself," Herrmann said. "That must all still be investigated."

He started attacking his passengers with an axe and a knife around 9 p.m. local time as the train was approaching its last stop, the Bavarian city of Wuerzburg, Herrmann said.

The attacker, who came to Germany as an unaccompanied minor two years ago, fled into the town of Heidingsfeld after the emergency brake was pulled. He was pursued by a police unit and shot dead after attacking a woman and trying to assault the police officers, Herrmann said.

Hong Kong leader Leung Chun-ying condemned the attack, which he said injured four of five members of a Hong Kong family that was on holiday in Germany. Herrmann said the family had visited the medieval town of Rothenburg ob der Tauber before the attack.

Leung"s office said Hong Kong and Chinese officials were in touch with the German embassy to follow up on the case, and representatives were en route to visit the family.

Unlike neighbors France and Belgium, Germany has not been the victim of a major attack by Islamic militants in recent years, although security officials say they have thwarted a large number of plots.

Germany welcomed about 1 million migrants in 2015, including thousands of unaccompanied minors. Many were fleeing war in Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan.

(This story corrects paragraph 15 to show name of town is Heidingsfeld, not Heiligenfeld)

(Reporting by Michael Nienaber, Noah Barkin, Andrea Shalal, Caroline Copley, Michelle Martin and Gernot Heller, and Jens Hack in Munich and Reuters TV; Writing by Andrea Shalal; Editing by Angus MacSwan)

Source: http://www.reuters.com/article/us-europe-attacks-germany-idUSKCN0ZY2LA

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