Hundreds of migrants in Germany are reporting themselves as members of terrorist organizations in an apparent bid to avoid deportation, according to state officials.
More than 450 asylum seekers in the cities of Stuttgart and Karlsruhe in the southwest state of Baden Wurttemberg have declared an affiliation with terrorist groups since the start of 2017.
According to figures from public prosecutors, as reported by Stuttgarter Nachrichten, the number of self-incriminations is rising – 159 such reports were made in the region in just the first three months of this year.
Minister of Justice for Baden-Württemberg Guido Wolf said suspects cannot be deported to their home countries while an investigation into alleged terrorists links is ongoing. “I can’t understand why someone would accuse himself of a serious crime, in the hope of gaining an advantage in his asylum claim,” he added.
In a statement to Stuttgarter Nachrichten, the Ministry of Justice in Baden-Württemberg said that “the investigations are proving time-consuming as they are almost always alleged foreign acts, for example in Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan or Somalia.”
Only four of 55 such cases received by the Prosecutor General's Office in Stuttgart this year have been closed, according to Wolf.
According to justice ministry figures, almost half of the investigations into Islamist terrorism in Germany are cases of self-incriminations. The Minister of Justice in Saxony, Sebastian Gemkow, has also warned that anyone who makes a false confession will face criminal consequences.
READ MORE: German right-wing MPs go to Syria to see if it’s safe to send refugees back
Rainer Rothfuss a geopolitical analyst and professor at Tübingen University's Institute of Geography in Baden-Württemberg told RT that by the end of 2017 it became clear that the German government needs to employ more than 2000 further judicial experts to deal with the increasing number of alleged Islamist terrorist cases. This adds to the burden on the judicial system and leads to a sharp rise in employment costs.
Meanwhile, in Greece asylum seekers have presented themselves to police to be arrested in order to escape deportation. Hundreds of Syrian migrants gathered outside a police station in Thessaloniki on Friday hoping to be formally arrested so they could be issued with documents allowing them to remain legally in Greece for at least 30 days. Most of them had made illegal border crossings from Turkey after fleeing Turkey’s military offensive on the city of Afrin, reported AP.
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