Officials in an asylum home in Germany have raised the alarm after discovering several young asylum seekers have been watching Islamic State propaganda films and may have been radicalised.
Officials at an asylum home for unaccompanied minors in Freising discovered three young migrants in their care had not only watched several Islamic State propaganda videos but had also taken pictures of themselves posing with the symbols of the terror group, Müncher Merkur reports.
Local councillor Josef Hauner said, “We are making sure to look for any hint” of radicalisation and added, “fortunately nothing has happened.” Both the police and local government were made aware of the three underage migrants and are said to be observing them closely.
District office spokesman Eva Dörpinghaus confirmed that the three migrants had been watching Islamic State videos and that one of them had made his own Islamic State flag. One of the migrants had been described by asylum staff as “ambitious, diligent and willing to learn.”
“The indications that unaccompanied minors are radicalising are different,” Dörpinghaus said, adding that supervisors of the underage migrants required a “special sensitivity” to detect the signs of radicalisation.
The Federal Office for Migration and Refugees (BAMF) was also notified and they, in turn, mobilised anti-radicalisation experts who are now working with the migrants.
An expert at BAMF said, “Looking at supposed IS videos or crafting an IS flag is a fact that may indicate a radicalisation process at an advanced stage,” and the agency appear to be taking the potential threat very seriously.
Freising Police Chief Ernst Neuner said that no charges would be made against the migrants as no crime had been committed. He likened the case to German children drawing swastikas, a symbol banned in Germany.
The radicalisation of young underage migrants is a top concern for German authorities as some of the attacks committed in the country this year were plotted or carried out by underage Muslims, some of them asylum seekers.
Salafist preachers have been reported infiltrating asylum homes to recruit young migrants. Police and intelligence agencies have warned that extremists volunteer in asylum homes for the purpose of radicalising migrants.
Young Muslims have also been radicalising themselves by accessing Islamic State propaganda on the internet. French scholar Gilles Kepel has said the problem of young Muslim radicalisation is so troublesome it could lead to a European civil war.