The draft law on the new “security package” was discussed in its first reading in the Bundestag on Thursday. The traffic light government made the move public after a 26-year-old Syrian man killed three people with a knife at a festival in Solingen.
The Home Office divides the “package” into three sub-sections: To “prevent” illegal migration, the responsible federal office must be allowed to use biometric data; under the “Dublin Regulation”, asylum seekers who are responsible for another EU country will no longer be entitled to social benefits if that country agrees to their re-entry; and “non-essential” travel to the country of origin must lead to the removal of their protection status.
The “fight against Islamism” is used to justify the expansion of the powers of the state repressive organs. The BKA and the Federal Police should be able to “technologically merge” various databases to identify people, not only suspects, but also witnesses or eyewitnesses, evaluate them with AI software, and perform biometric comparisons of images freely available on the Internet. Missing people. The domestic secret services should be given additional powers to “control the flow of money” and thus better combat “terrorist financing.”
The “security package” concludes with stricter gun laws and an “absolute ban on knives at folk festivals, sporting events, trade fairs, exhibitions, markets and other public events” and on buses and trains. If necessary, at train stations. Police control should be expanded to strengthen enforcement.
The proposed measure met with little opposition in the Bundestag on Thursday, although it did not go far enough for the Bundestag, parliamentary manager Thorsten Frei (CDU) explained. The measure did not go far enough for the AfD either. “If you want real change on migration, you have to vote for the AfD,” said Bernd Baumann, the AfD parliamentary group’s parliamentary representative.
Parts of the “security package” must be approved by the federal parliament. Border control and the rejection of asylum seekers are not addressed in the draft.
