Fears are mounting in Germany that the federal government is preparing to accept a large influx of refugees from bomb-stricken Gaza, the country’s biggest-selling newspaper has reported.
According to Bild, staff at the German embassy in Cairo have erected a large makeshift processing center on its grounds and recruited crisis support teams to assist with applications.
The foreign office in Berlin announced on Monday that it was successfully repatriating hundreds of German citizens from the war-torn region, but security personnel are reportedly concerned that Germany will soon play host to a larger reception of asylum seekers.
“We have so far been able to ensure that around 320 Germans, including their family members, have been able to leave Gaza safely,” Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said on Monday, but when her office was pressed by Bild on how many of those being brought to Germany were actual German citizens, it opted not to reply.
Photographs from the garden of the German embassy in the Egyptian capital suggest a larger operation may soon swing into action with several staff setting up shop at workstations tasked with handling asylum applications.
“The construction of processing stations under a tent roof in the embassy garden suggests that Minister Annalena Baerbock’s department may be preparing for a larger influx of Gaza refugees,” Bild reported.
The newspaper revealed there is now “great concern” among security officials that members of the Hamas terrorist organization may be flown to Germany under family reunification rules, as the Islamic militant group seeks to flee the oncoming Israeli ground invasion — a retaliatory measure following Hamas’ slaughter of more than 1,300 Israeli civilians in a terror attack on Oct. 7.
Opposition politicians are calling for the federal government to take action to prevent such a scenario.
“The federal government must ensure that it does not bring Hamas supporters or even terrorist murderers into the country,” said Andrea Lindholz, the CSU’s security spokesperson and vice-president of its parliamentary party in the Bundestag.
“To achieve this, thorough police work by German and Israeli authorities is essential before departure from Cairo,” she added.
The scenario has striking similarities with the aftermath of the conflict in Syria when members of the Islamic death cult ISIS infiltrated Europe claiming to be asylum seekers.
It was confirmed that at the peak of the last migrant crisis to envelop Europe back in 2015, at least one of the terrorists responsible for slaughtering dozens in Paris had entered the European Union with a Syrian passport, portraying himself as an asylum seeker.
“These individuals took advantage of the refugee crisis… of the chaos, perhaps, for some of them to slip in” to Europe, French Prime Minister Manuel Valls told the National Assembly at the time.