German head of security services: Isil fighters are 'disguising themselves as refugees'

 

Warning comes after an Algerian man was arrested at a refugee shelter on suspicion of planning a terror attack in Berlin 

The Islamic State is infiltrating terrorists into Europe “disguised as refugees ”, the head of Germany’s domestic security service has said.

The warning comes after an Algerian man was arrested at a refugee shelter on Thursday on suspicion of planning a terror attack in Berlin.

“We have seen repeatedly that terrorists are being smuggled in disguised or camouflaged as refugees,” Hans-Georg Maassen, the head of the Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV), said.

 
Hans-Georg Maassen, the head of the Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV)   Photo: Getty

German authorities have so far tried to play down the possibility that Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Isil) extremists have entered the country among the 1.1m asylum-seekers who arrived last year.

But in the wake of the latest arrest Mr Maassen said it was a “reality that the security agencies have to face”.
It was already clear from last November’s attacks in Paris that “Isil consciously infiltrates terrorists among the refugees,” he told Germany’s ZDF television.
At least one of the Paris attackers is believed to have entered Europe posing as a refugee.

 

Migrants and refugees queue to receive food as they wait to cross the border from Greece to Macedonia near Idomeni  Photo: AFP

An Algerian asylum-seeker was among three people arrested on Thursday over an alleged planned attack in the heart of Berlin.
The 35-year-old man, who has not been named, was staying at a refugee shelter in Attendorn, a small town some 50 miles from Cologne, together with his wife and two small children.
His wife is also believed to be among those being held. A third suspect, another Algerian man, was arrested in a separate raid in Berlin.
More details have begun to emerge over the alleged terror plot.