After the deadly knife attack in Illerkirchberg, the anger and fear of the townspeople runs deep. In December, 14-year-old Ece S. was killed on her way to school by a 27-year-old refugee from Eritea. Her 13-year-old friend escaped with serious injuries. The motive of the perpetrator is still unclear.
At a civil dialogue on Wednesday evening with more than 300 residents, the father of the 14-year-old who was killed also spoke up. In addition to Mayor Markus Häußler, representatives from the police, district office, regional council and the Baden-Württemberg Ministry of Justice answered the questions of the agitated citizens.
“The whole village is afraid”
Life in Illerkirchberg has changed since the bloody deed. “The whole village is afraid,” says a woman that evening, according to the Southwest Press. The visibly moved father of the killed 14-year-old Ece S. addressed the audience like this: “I wanted to say that the police did a great job,” reports the picture. With tears, Father Mesut S. expressed a wish to the community: The crime scene should be redesigned so that nothing reminds of it. He would like the house in which the refugees were housed to be demolished in order to create a green meadow for children there. “My other two children are afraid of walking past it,” the father continues.
On that evening, the citizens primarily asked questions about how to deal with and integrate refugees in the future. One woman asks how refugees can be looked after better in order to prevent such acts. A difficult question for Mayor Häußler: “We visit the shelters once a week” – but intensive psychological care or training is neither planned nor affordable, says Häußler.
According to Emanuel Sontheimer, Head of the Refugees, Integration and Government Benefits Department, the solution is to establish interdisciplinary teams that can be used to deal with specific problems. However, the exact procedure of the teams was not discussed, according to the reports.
Why are criminal refugees not deported?
During the citizens’ dialogue, many citizens were also interested in why criminal refugees are not deported, writes the “Südwest Presse”. Falk Fritzsch from the Ministry of Justice and Migration in Baden-Württemberg then explains that the federal government must pave the way for deportation. Finally, if there is a particular danger in the home country or there is a threat of political persecution, criminals may not be deported.
The case of a convicted criminal from Afghanistan who had to be accommodated again in the community also caused discussions that evening. In 2019, the man and other men in a refugee home in Illerkirchberg raped a 14-year-old several times. The 30-year-old was supposed to report regularly to the authorities after his release from prison and remain in the district, but he has now gone into hiding.
Why was a rapist released in the first place?
Therefore, citizens questioned why the rapist was released in the first place. Stefan Grauer from the regional council in Tübingen explained that the perpetrator was released from detention pending deportation because there was no prospect of deportation in the near future. Nevertheless, the perpetrator is legally obliged to leave the country: “There is no reason why he should not be deported,” says Grauer. According to him, however, the federal government is getting in the way.
This was followed by an exclamation from the audience: “The federal government must act and hold these people accountable,” reports the “Südwest Presse”.
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Mayor faces death threats
In addition to dealing with the terrible act, Mayor Häußler also has problems with right-wing elevators and death threats, reports the “Südwest Presse”. When asked how Häussler is doing under these circumstances, he replies: “Since the terrible morning of December 5th, we haven’t had time in administration to work through this, we’re just in the mode of functioning.” To process the events and that Bringing the community back together is now his priority.
