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Berlin / AFP
Germany’s Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere is preparing to unveil a slew of new anti-terror measures,
reports said on Wednesday, after two
attacks in July claimed by the IS
extremist group.
The new measures to be announced Thursday include speeding up the expulsion process for asylum seekers convicted of crimes, Bild daily
reported, quoting anonymous security sources.
The minister is also planning to make being a “threat to public security” grounds for deporting migrants.
Doctors will also have their strict confidentiality obligations lifted in special cases that would allow them to inform authorities should their patient be a potential threat to the population, added Bild.
The tougher stance comes after the two attacks by migrants in the southern state of Bavaria — an axe rampage on a train in Wuerzburg and a suicide bombing in Ansbach.
In Wuerzburg, the 17-year-old attacker was shot dead by police after injuring five people. In Ansbach 15 people were injured after a failed Syrian asylum seeker detonated an explosive device outside a music festival, killing himself.
De Maiziere is also expected to sign off next week on a declaration with regional interior ministers from Chancellor Angela Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union and sister party Christian Social Union that calls for further security and anti-terror measures, according to RND media group which publishes more than 30 regional dailies.
These additional measures include imposing a burqa ban, scrapping the possibility of dual nationalities for German citizens and boosting the presence of police in trains, as well as at railway stations and airports.
The declaration also calls for the recruitment of 15,000 police officers between by 2020 and for measures to halt the financing of mosques by extremist organisations. It also urges the expulsion of foreign religious leaders who preach hate.
Meanwhile, German police Wednesday raided apartments and work places of three men suspected of recruiting members for the Islamic State organisation, federal prosecutors said.
No arrests were made in the raids in the western state of North Rhine-Westphalia and the northern state of Lower Saxony.
Separately, German special forces have arrested a Syrian suspected of being a member of the Islamic State group, local authorities said Tuesday, citing a threat to the opening game of the upcoming Bundesliga football championships.