Germany closer to confiscating Islamist IDs

Answering questions on the cabinet meeting in the Bundestag on Wednesday, Germany's Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere said that while the plan wouldn't put a complete stop to travels by German islamists, it would certainly lower the number of departures by making it more difficult to leave the country.

"In the situation we're in right now, effective measures that reduce the problem and not completely solve it are still sorely needed," de Maiziere emphasized.

Without a regular ID, extremists cannot leave the country to fight alongside Islamic State (IS) militants in Syria or Iraq. When they return, trained in war and terrorism, these fighters pose a great potential threat to Germany.

The measure comes exactly one week after the attack on French satirical magazine "Charlie Hebdo" by Islamist extremists, who killed 12 people last Wednesday (07.01.2015) and whose accomplice shot one police woman and four hostages in a Jewish supermarket in Paris.

Stopping radical Islamists from leaving Germany, however, is not a new discussion. Merkel's government has to adopt stricter measures in order to comply with the UN "Foreign Fighters" resolution that the Security Council passed in September 2014. All UN member states must make sure that their legal systems provide for the prosecution of travel for terrorism or related training. Since this resolution was passed, the German government has been looking into how existing laws could be modified or expanded.

German ID's special role

The first idea was to mark the IDs of potentially dangerous individuals. This was cast aside in favor of replacing the ID with a substitute document.

German intelligence agencies closely monitor radical Islamists

"We don't want terrorism to be exported. We don't want men and women to be radicalized here and to travel to Syria and Iraq to come back here ready to fight and to plan attacks," Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere said when first introducing the concept of the replacement ID in October 2014.

The issue is especially tricky in Germany, because every German citizen gets an ID, or "Personalausweis," when they turn 16 and must present it when signing a cell phone contract, renting an apartment, or opening a bank account. So far, authorities are not allowed to confiscate these IDs.

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Germany closer to confiscating Islamist IDs