16 November 2015•Update: 17 November 2015
BRUSSELS
Europe should not mix terrorism with the refugee crisis facing the continent, EU Enlargement Commissioner Johannes Hahn said Monday.
“It’s important to stress, we should not mix up this terrorist attack with our current migration and refugee problem - these are two different issues,” he told reporters in Brussels ahead of a meeting of EU foreign ministers.
Hahn said Europe should be “firm and bold” when facing the terror threat to “our European way of living.”
Friday’s Paris attacks left 129 dead after teams of gunmen targeted nightspots, a sports stadium and a concert hall.
The attacks have raised worries about a backlash against refugees, particularly after authorities indicated one of the attackers may have been a Syrian who crossed into Europe last month among waves of refugees fleeing civil war.
EU President Jean-Claude Juncker also called for unity. “Those who organized these attacks and those who carried them out are exactly those who the refugees are fleeing,” he said during a news conference at the G20 summit in Antalya, Turkey, on Sunday.
“There is no need for an overall review of the European policy on refugees.”
German Justice Minister Heiko Maas also warned against stigmatizing refugees and said Daesh deliberately sought to exploit the refugee crisis facing Europe.
“Refugees are the victims and not the perpetrators,” he told TV channel ARD on Monday. “No one should exploit these barbaric crimes now in order to incite here antipathy towards asylum seekers. Our answer to terror should be offering protection to the victims of terror.”
Referring to the Syrian passport found at one of the attack sites, he said Daesh were “deliberately laying false trails, in order to politicize and radicalize the refugee debate in Europe.”
On Saturday, anti-immigration group PEGIDA claimed in a Facebook post: “Those who are coming here are bringing terror to our country.”
On Sunday, the Christian Social Union, the junior partner in the German federal government, called for an end to Germany’s open-door refugee policy following the Paris attacks.
Bavarian Finance Minister Markus Soder told the Welt am Sonntag newspaper: “France has shown us. On questions of security, we cannot make a single compromise anymore.”
