Germany tightens weapons, deportation rules after fatal attack

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s ruling coalition agreed on a package to strengthen regulations on weapons including knives and to lower hurdles to deport criminal asylum seekers following a deadly knife attack last week.

A Syrian man identified by prosecutors as Issa Al H., who had eluded deportation after a failed asylum application, is in custody accused of carrying out the attack at a festival in the western German city of Solingen on Aug. 23. Three people were killed and eight injured. The suspect is also accused of being a member of the extremist Islamic State.

“Knives have no place at festivals, sporting events or other public events. That is why there will be a knife ban here,” Interior Minister Nancy Faeser, a senior member of Scholz’s Social Democrats, told reporters on Thursday.

The package also includes tougher migration rules that would allow authorities to deport teenage asylum seekers if they attack or threaten other people, Justice Minister Marco Buschmann, a member of the co-governing Free Democrats, said at the press conference.

“Anyone who is motivated by Islamism, jihadism or is otherwise extremist cannot be granted asylum in Germany or be recognized as a refugee,” Buschmann said. “That is why we will expand the exclusion criteria for asylum eligibility.”

The government also wants to cut social benefits for certain asylum seekers. Faeser said this would apply to migrants for whom another European country is responsible under the European Union’s joint migration and asylum rules.

Scholz’s three coalition parties have invited members of the opposition conservatives and representatives of Germany’s 16 states for further talks next week to discuss the proposed package and possible additional measures, Faeser added.

The knife attack in Solingen has sparked a heated debate in Germany about migration and security days before elections in two eastern states on Sunday, in which the far-right Alternative for Germany party is projected to come in first place.