Taking in Guantánamo prisoners foolhardy

Germany has taken in two former inmates from the US prison camp Guantánamo, a move that for German Interior Minister Thomas de Maizière involves no security risks. The two men will live on welfare, which the tabloid Bild finds absurd in view of the current debate on integration: "For weeks all of Germany has been hot under the collar discussing the failures of integration, all the people who will have nothing to do with our system of values, who trample the rule of law underfoot but are only too glad to take advantage of our social welfare system. Then Interior Minister de Maizière goes out and fetches two new citizens: a Syrian and a Palestinian, both of whom were doing time in Guantánamo on suspicion of being terrorists. Here they get a flat, welfare benefits, counsellors and psychotherapy, and are supposed to live 'free from media harassment'. ... It may be that the two men have been dealt with unjustly. It may be they can settle in fine. But what kind of signal are politicians sending us, the citizens, by financing a 'new start' for such people when they can't even integrate the Muslims that are already living here?"

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