A Syrian migrant with a Dutch passport is alleged to have committed a knife attack against a four-year-old girl in a supermarket in the southern German city of Wangen im Allgäu in April, and seriously injured her. The perpetrator and the victim did not know each other. The girl was in the supermarket with her mother when the incident happened and had to be operated on after the stabbing.
A psychiatric report was ordered to check the 34-year-old man’s mental state. The prosecution has accused him of attempted murder and dangerous bodily harm.
The motive of the perpetrator remains unclear but the man was already known to the police, as he had acted aggressively before. He is said to have come to Wangen im Allgäu in 2023 to visit his sister and her family. A few months before the knife attack, he had been in the same supermarket and acted violently towards his relatives, including the children.
The family threw him out of the house, after which he spent the night in various places in the city, including in an underground car park and in the forest. During this time, he again attracted the attention of the police. He temporarily stayed in a homeless shelter and the police were alerted again after he punched a fellow resident in the face.
Another Syrian citizen, a 17-year-old man was arrested at the weekend for stabbing a family of five last week in Stuttgart. One of his victims, a 37-year-old man, was in critical condition in hospital. The perpetrator and two other migrants first started insulting the family. When their attempts at provocation went unanswered, they took out their knives, and the Syrian man followed up on his threats with violent action.
This case is particularly disturbing, as the attacker had apparently committed 34 criminal acts in 31 months—but the police have kept letting him go. The serial offender, who was born in Syria and came to Germany as a refugee, has been accused of, among other things, bodily harm, robbery, coercion, damage to property, credit fraud, and fraudulently obtaining benefits.
His temporary residence permit in Germany was only valid until November of last year. He has applied for an extension, and as long as that is not approved, he can legally stay in Germany.
The two stabbing incidents not only highlight how crimes committed by migrants are not being taken seriously enough by law enforcement, but also how dangerous foreigners are allowed to stay in the country.
Support for resuming deportations to both Syria and Afghanistan has increased after a spate of violent knife attacks in recent months, and the murder of a policeman by an Afghan failed asylum seeker. However, despite the leftist-liberal government vowing to deport dangerous criminals, it hasn’t followed through with actions.
A German court ruled last month that there is no longer a general danger to all civilians in Syria, which in theory means that dangerous Syrian criminals could legally be deported back to their home country. The ruling could significantly impact deportation cases, because the German government has so far classified Syria as an unsafe country of origin and rejects deporting failed asylum seekers there.
Authorities should “consistently deport all those who have no reason for asylum and no right to be here, who are criminals and abuse our hospitality. They have to return to their home countries as quickly as possible, including to Syria and Afghanistan,” the prime minister of the state of Saxony, Michael Kretschmer told Die Welt in an interview.
Responding to a question, he said the government should not shy away from negotiating with the Taliban regime in Afghanistan, or the president of war-torn Syria, Bashar al-Assad, in order to speed up deportations. He added that the goal should be to reduce the number of immigrants “from the current 300,000 to 50,000 or 30,000” per year.
