Germany tightens foreign travel ban on suspected jihadists

Germany has introduced a law tightening travel by suspected Islamists to strife-torn countries like Syria and Iraq, days after terror attacks by home-grown jihadists in France that left 17 people dead.
Chancellor Angela Merkel's cabinet yesterday passed the law, which will enable the authorities to confiscate for three years the identity cards of radical Islamists to prevent them from travelling to Syria or Iraq to join the Islamic State (IS) terror group.
This was necessary because hundreds of jihadists from this country have been travelling to join the IS militants via Turkey using their identity cards, Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere said.

Confiscating their passports has so far been largely ineffective as they could still enter Turkey with their identity cards and from there, cross into the areas controlled by IS militants in Syria and Iraq.
The law is the first of a number of previously planned security measures that Merkel's government wants to speedily pass through parliament following the attacks in France.
Germany's security authorities have information that more than 600 radical Islamists from this country have travelled to Syria and Iraq to join the IS fighters and their number has been steadily rising in recent months, de Maiziere said.

Between 150 and 180 of them have returned home and around 30 of them have gained experience in IS combat operations, and may carry out terrorist attacks in this country, he told a press conference here.

One of the two Kouachi brothers, who killed 12 people at the offices of the satirical weekly 'Charlie Hebdo' in Paris a week ago, had reportedly received training at an al-Qaeda camp in Yemen.
The new law, which does not require an approval by the Bundestag, the lower house of parliament, will make it easier for the authorities to confiscate the identity cards of Islamists if security authorities have information that they belonged to or supported a terrorist organisation.
Those who surrender their identity cards will receive a substitute card, which will make it difficult for them to leave the country.

De Maiziere said the new law will not prevent completely German jihadists from travelling abroad, but it is an effective instrument in the fight against international terrorism.
Justice Minister Heiko Maas said earlier that the government is also planning a new law, which will make travelling abroad with the intention of joining a terror camp or to get involved in terrorist attacks a criminal offence.
Those returning home after attending terror camps abroad are already liable for punishment.
Other planned measures include a new legislation which will make it illegal to provide financial support or donations to terror organisations.