In the wake of a spate of terror attacks, German Chancellor Angela Merkel has rejected calls to change her country’s refugee policy.
As reported by the Independent, Merkel said the asylum seekers responsible for the deadly attacks in Ansbach and Reutlingen had “shamed the country that welcomed them”, but that those fleeing persecution and war had a right to be protected.
She vowed not to give in to efforts by Islamic State supporters to frighten Germans into changing their way of life.
“The terrorists want to make us lose sight of what is important to us, break down our cohesion and sense of community, as well as inhibit our way of life, our openness and our willingness to take in people who are in need,” she told a news conference after returning from holiday.
The German government, however, is hammering out new counter-terror measures on information-sharing, web chatter, online arms sales and improving security.
In a separate report, The Guardian noted that Merkel’s nine-point plan to increase security in Germany will include: an office for information technology that would concentrate on decoding internet communications between would-be attackers and terror groups; an increase in personnel at Germany’s intelligence agencies; a national register to monitor people entering and leaving the country; a lower threshold for deporting asylum seekers who break the law; regular joint exercises with the police and military to practice measures necessary in case of a terror attack; and an “early-warning system” to flag up radicalisation among refugees.