According to the German Federal Police, motorised escape helpers are increasingly trying to evade control. Possibly a consequence of the rigid migration policy and criminalisation of „smugglers“.
Increasingly often, illegalised crossings of migrants into Germany result in traffic accidents with fatalities and injuries. “Smugglers” disregarded police requests to stop and tried to evade prosecution. Their vehicles are also often overloaded. This was the answer given last week by Mahmut Özdemir, Parliamentary State Secretary at the Federal Ministry of the Interior, in response to an oral question from Left Party MP Clara Bünger.
According to Özdemir, the Federal Police are even observing a new “escape behaviour” on the part of “smugglers”, which is increasingly characterised by “inappropriate and excessive speeds as well as dangerous driving”. Both the people being smuggled and officers are being put at risk. As examples, the State Secretary and member of parliament for the Social Democratic Party (SPD) mentions driving towards the police and tailgating police vehicles at high speeds.
In fact, such incidents seem to have become more frequent recently. When a suspected “smuggler” fled from the Federal Police at the beginning of October, his vehicle crashed in the district of Altötting, injuring the driver and a passenger. The driver jumped out of the car and the vehicle, which was on a slope, then rolled over him. Shortly afterwards, seven people died in an accident involving a suspected “smuggler’s” van near Munich. The transporter had been pursued by the Federal Police and overturned several times; the driver is being investigated for murder. Also in Bavaria, a “smuggler” ignored stop signals at the beginning of February and tried to escape the motorway police by changing lanes – but was unsuccessful.
The Ministry of the Interior cites an increased number of unauthorised entries into Germany as the reason for the increase in accidents involving “smuggling vehicles”. The Federal Police also sees the culprits among those helping people to escape.
However, Bünger sees the increasingly rigid migration policy as the cause. “The German government makes it easy for itself: when people die or are seriously injured while fleeing – whether it’s during the crossing of the Mediterranean or in road accidents overland – it blames ‘criminal smugglers’,” the Left Party MP told “nd”.
As an immediate measure, the ministry should therefore instruct the police to refrain from stopping suspected “smugglers’” vehicles, which can sometimes be fatal. “What weighs more heavily: the prosecution of a ‘smuggler’ or the lives of people seeking protection in Germany?” asks Bünger.
Published in German in „nd“.
Image: Federal Police Bavaria.
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