Daesh fighters returning to EU stoke terror risk in Germany

Fighters returning to Europe after the collapse of the Daesh and radicalisation among refugees could increase the terror threat in Germany, a high-ranking police official warned Tuesday.

"We know that the risks have not shrunk because of the influx of refugees" into Europe's most populous country since 2015, Federal Criminal Police chief Holger Muench told the European Police Congress in Berlin.

"If their dreams are not fulfilled" of a better life in Europe, some among the more than one million arrivals since that year could become radicalised, he warned.

Meanwhile, Muench said that "we must assume that there will be those who return" from battlefields in Iraq and Syria to Europe, he said, and that "people prepared to carry out attacks" will enjoy support from underground networks communicating via the internet.

"Daesh is very adaptable," he added.

The number of people listed as "dangerous" potential terrorists by German police has increased from 139 five years ago to 743, while some 970 people are known to have travelled from the country to the would-be caliphate.

Most attacks or attempted attacks in Germany since 2015 have been carried out by asylum seekers.

Security forces could combat the increased threat by working together more closely and sharing information at the national and European levels, Muench said, as well as upgrading their digital sleuthing skills.