Angela Merkel has dismissed suggestions that the influx of 1.1 million migrants past year brought Islamic State extremism to Germany.
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Fleeing war-zones and poverty, more than a million refugees arrived to Germany previous year. The comment comes a month after she admitted terrorists used the migrant flow to enter Europe.
Merkel denies there is a link between increased terror attacks and the new arrivals.
She said many people had travelled from Germany to Syria for training with Islamist militants.
German intelligence services have evidence that “hit squads” from the Islamic State terror group have infiltrated the country disguised as refugees, the deputy head of Bavaria’s spy agency told the BBC Thursday.
Merkel will push reluctant German companies to offer more traineeships and position to refugees, Bild reported. The Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung reported a month ago that the 30 biggest DAX-listed companies had until June employed only 54 refugees, including 50 who were hired by logistics provider Deutsche Post. “We are still following up on these, and we haven’t investigated all of them fully”, said Hauser.
Merkel said it’s important to prevent people-smuggling and ensure that refugees can live in “humane conditions” near their homelands – for example, through arrangements such as the European Union’s deal with Turkey to cut migrant flows.
She added that a type of Islam that did not stick to the constitution or accept equal rights for women had no place in the country.
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Michael Roth, Germany’s European affairs minister, told Reuters Trump’s statement was incorrect and it was important to correct campaign statements in other countries that were based on “fears, lies and half-truths”, given the importance of the United States election for the world.
