Grave Situation: Migration, Integration, and Attacks in Germany

Germany has been hit by four attacks in the past week, three involving refugees. Last Monday, a 17-year-old refugee thought to be from Afghanistan injured a handful of people with an axe and knife on a train near Würzburg. On Friday, 18-year-old Ali Sonboly – born in Germany to Iranian parents – was identified by authorities as the person who shot and killed nine people and injured more than 20 around a shopping mall in Munich. And on Sunday, a 21-year-old Syrian refugee killed a woman and injured two others with a machete in Reutlingen, while hours later another Syrian refugee – a 27-year-old – killed himself and injured a dozen others after setting off an explosive device outside a music festival in Ansbach. The Cipher Brief’s Kaitlin Lavinder spoke with Robert Richer, former CIA Associate Deputy Director for Operations, about these latest attacks, the influx of refugees in Europe, and German immigration policy moving forward.

TCB: Three assailants involved in attacks in Germany over the past week – in Würzburg, Reutlingen, and Ansbach – were refugees. The shooter in the Munich attack on Friday was not a refugee, but was from an Iranian-German family (his parents immigrated to Germany in the 1990s). How much is the recent influx of migration from the Middle East to Germany affecting the security situation in Germany?