In the debate on possible war criminals among asylum seekers in Germany, the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees (BAMF) has drawn attention to the phenomenon of self-incrimination. There are cases in which people „accuse themselves in order to maintain a protection status in this country,“ said BAMF President Hans-Eckhard Sommer on request of „Welt am Sonntag“.
The total number of references says „nothing about the possible threat,“ said Sommer. According to the report, migrants from Pakistan or Afghanistan, for example, when applying for asylum, claim to have been members of Islamist organizations such as the Taliban. They were hoping for subsidiary protection because they would face persecution as a member of such an organization in their country of origin.
Federal Office „no safety authority“
A government response to a parliamentary inquiry by the FDP published last week shows that between 2014 and the beginning of 2019, the BAMF forwarded around 5,000 references to war criminals to the Federal Criminal Police Office and the Federal Public Prosecutor General. However, only 129 corresponding investigations were initiated. This raised the question of whether the evidence was sufficiently investigated.
Sommer defended his authority’s approach: „Our security experts take every hint of an asylum seeker seriously and immediately forward it.“ He has „no reason to believe“ that these reports would not be taken seriously by other authorities. The Federal Office itself was „no security authority – but intimately interlinked with these“.
