Berlin rushes to take in 535 Afghan refugees – DW – 12/18/2025

Germany’s federal court on Thursday heard the case of a 30-year-old Pakistani woman who claims she was the victim of racial discrimination in her attempts to find a place to live.

Humaira Wasim claimed racism as applications to view several apartments by her, her sister and her husband were immediately rejected after they were submitted in November 2022, but the same application was approved when a common German name was typed instead of her own.

Wasim sued a real estate agent in the western state of Hesse seeking compensation under Germany’s general equal treatment act.

Waseem’s original suit was dismissed in the district court but he won an appeal in the Darmstadt regional court.

The real estate agent at the time received €3,000 ($3,522), and was also ordered to cover Waseem’s legal costs.

The case is now before the country’s highest court on an appeal by the real estate agent.

The Karlsruhe court must determine whether the agent is liable for the behavior of individual landlords or whether they alone are responsible in such cases.

No decision is expected until next year.

Federal prosecutors on Thursday filed charges against seven young Germans, accused of being members and supporters of a far-right extremist organization that plotted violent attacks in hopes of instigating a “race war” to topple the government and “preserve the white race.”

The group, which called itself the “Last Wave of Defense”, was the target of a series of police raids across Germany in May.

The men being prosecuted – aged between 14 and 21 at the time of the raids – are accused of membership in a terrorist organisation, conspiracy to commit murder and causing grievous bodily harm.

A man who was 13 at the time was not included in the trial because he was too young. In Germany, criminal responsibility begins at age 14. Persons over the age of 18 will be tried as adults.

Prosecutors say the youth had planned to target asylum seekers, asylum accommodation facilities and political opponents in arson and explosive attacks in order to precipitate the collapse of the current democratic system in order to “defend the German nation”.

In addition to posting anti-Semitic and racist messages, the group is also believed to be behind an arson attack in the state of Brandenburg, a failed arson attack in Thuringia, and another planned attack in Brandenburg.

Thursday’s charges were filed at the Hamburg Higher Regional Court.

The trial date has not been announced.

A judge in the city of Magdeburg has said the trial of a 51-year-old Saudi Arabian man charged with murder and attempted murder in an attack on the city’s Christmas market in 2024 will go ahead despite the defendant’s attempts to delay the proceedings by holding a hunger strike.

Although the man admitted that he intentionally drove a rented SUV into a crowd of holidaymakers, killing six people and injuring more than 300, the defendant began a hunger strike on November 10, the day after the trial began.

At that time, the defendant said: “I started the hunger strike yesterday. I intend to do it for three weeks. No physical harm is expected.”

On Thursday, the court’s presiding judge Dirk Sternberg declared the defendant unfit to stand trial.

It is said that the accused has lost a lot of weight and doctors say that there is a serious risk of his organs failing.

Judge Sternberg told the defendants in November, “You do not have the power to delay or torpedo a trial by going on a hunger or thirst strike.”

Sternberg says the trial will proceed without a defendant.

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz was speaking candidly when addressing fellow European leaders at the EU summit in Brussels on Thursday. Speaking about the controversial idea of ​​using frozen Russian assets to finance Ukraine’s war effort, Merz said, “There is no better option than this.”

“The Russian President’s reactions in recent hours show how necessary this is. In my view, this is really the only option. We are basically faced with the choice of using European loans or Russian assets for Ukraine, and my opinion is clear: we must use Russian assets.”

The EU and its member states have provided massive technical and financial assistance in Kiev’s nearly four-year defense against Russian invaders at great expense to their domestic budgets.

The idea of ​​using frozen Russian assets has caused consternation in the EU, with Merz, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and others advocating their use to bankroll Ukraine to relieve the burden on EU allies; And others, such as Bart de Wever, the prime minister of Belgium – where the assets in question are currently held – and the Moscow-friendly governments of Hungary and Slovakia, protested. Bulgaria, Italy and Malta are currently undecided.

Belgium fears it could eventually have trouble repaying those real estate assets to Russia, something EU leaders have promised will not happen, saying layers of protection will be put in place to protect Belgium from individual liability.

Merz said Thursday he hoped Belgium’s fears could be addressed.

A 40-year-old German man has been remanded to psychiatric custody after being found guilty in a car-crashing incident in March that left an 83-year-old woman and a 54-year-old man dead and several people injured.

The man was sentenced to life imprisonment by a state court in Mannheim.

The man has been charged with two counts of murder and multiple counts of attempt to murder in the March 3, 2025 incident, in which he repeatedly accelerated his car into a pedestrian zone to run over people celebrating Carnival.

According to officials, when the defendant tried to flee, a taxi driver stopped him.

The man later shot at the taxi driver, then shot himself and tried to hide at a nearby construction site before being found by police.

The prosecutor and defense attorneys agreed to the request that the man be placed in a psychiatric hospital.

Germany is set to host the next women’s European football championship, Euro 2029. DW’s Jonathan Harding looks at what is billed as the first lucrative Euros for women, and why the competition is about much more than money.

Read more about Euro 2029 in Germany here.

German Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt said on Thursday that the Berlin government is keen to move some 565 Afghan refugees to Germany as soon as possible with permanent entry clearance.

“We are interested in making sure this is dealt with as quickly as possible and we are in contact with Pakistani authorities,” Dobrindt said. “We want to finish this as far as possible in December. But there may still be some cases that will need to be handled in the new year.”

On Tuesday, a government chartered flight brought a group of 160 Afghan refugees to Germany.

Berlin previously promised a new home to Afghans who assisted German troops or institutions on the ground in Afghanistan, as well as individuals who were particularly at risk from Afghanistan’s radical Islamic Taliban, but the coalition government of Friedrich Merz has tried to renege on the promise.

Last week, the Interior Ministry had said there was “no longer any political interest” in granting entry to a group of 640 Afghans stranded in Pakistan. Instead Berlin offered them financial assistance if they voluntarily returned to Afghanistan.

Islamabad had initially given Germany until the end of the year to repatriate the Afghans, saying otherwise the individuals would be deported back to Afghanistan.

good day From the newsroom in Bonn. Thank you for joining us for the latest news from Germany.

In Berlin’s latest deal on what to do with Afghan asylum seekers promised a new home in Germany, the Interior Ministry has said it is “interested” in bringing hundreds of Afghans to Germany as soon as possible. Last week, the ministry said there was “no longer any political interest” in the admission of a group of 640 such refugees.

Amid a number of car-collision incidents in the news in Germany these days – the Munich trial, the Magdeburg Christmas market trial, failed conspiracies in Bavaria and Saxony-Anhalt – a verdict is expected Thursday in Mannheim, where a German man is on trial for murder and attempted murder. It is said that the culprit deliberately drove his car into a crowd of people enjoying the carnival, resulting in the death of two people and injuries to several others.

Stay with DW for these stories and other news from Germany.