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France 'Concerned' at 'Arbitrary' Iranian Filmmaker Arrests

Women enjoy the view of Sacre-Coeur Basilica of Montmartre and Eiffel Tower at the Parc de Saint-Cloud near Paris, France, April 26, 2022. REUTERS/Gonzalo Fuentes/File Photo
Women enjoy the view of Sacre-Coeur Basilica of Montmartre and Eiffel Tower at the Parc de Saint-Cloud near Paris, France, April 26, 2022. REUTERS/Gonzalo Fuentes/File Photo
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France 'Concerned' at 'Arbitrary' Iranian Filmmaker Arrests

Women enjoy the view of Sacre-Coeur Basilica of Montmartre and Eiffel Tower at the Parc de Saint-Cloud near Paris, France, April 26, 2022. REUTERS/Gonzalo Fuentes/File Photo
Women enjoy the view of Sacre-Coeur Basilica of Montmartre and Eiffel Tower at the Parc de Saint-Cloud near Paris, France, April 26, 2022. REUTERS/Gonzalo Fuentes/File Photo

France on Friday expressed deep concern at the "arbitrary" arrests of three Iranian filmmakers, including international prize-winners Jafar Panahi and Mohammad Rasoulof.

Panahi and Rasoulof were "arbitrarily arrested" earlier this month along with Mostafa Aleahmad, the French foreign ministry said.

France is "very concerned by these arrests and those of other Iranian personalities engaged in the defense of freedom of expression in their country," the ministry added, citing a "worrying deterioration in the situation of artists in Iran".

AFP said that Paris demanded their immediate release and called on Tehran to respect international commitments to "guarantee the full exercise of freedom of expression and creation".

Panahi, 62, has won a slew of awards at international festivals for films that have critiqued modern Iran, including the top prize in Berlin for "Taxi" in 2015, and best screenplay at Cannes for his film "Three Faces" in 2018.

Rasoulof, 50, won the Golden Bear in Berlin in 2020 with his film "There Is No Evil".

Their arrests come after Panahi and Rasoulof denounced in May the arrests of several colleagues in their homeland in an open letter.

They notably highlighted the cases of internationally renowned female documentary producers Mina Keshavarz and Firoozeh Khosrovani, who were arrested but later freed under caution.

Despite the political pressures, Iran has a thriving film industry and the country's output regularly wins awards at major international festivals.

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Germany Expands Border Controls to Curb Irregular Migration and Extremism Risks

09 September 2024, Berlin: Nancy Faeser, Germany's Minister of the Interior and Home Affairs, speaks at a press conference on current measures in migration policy and the Federal Government's security package at the Federal Ministry of the Interior. (dpa)
09 September 2024, Berlin: Nancy Faeser, Germany's Minister of the Interior and Home Affairs, speaks at a press conference on current measures in migration policy and the Federal Government's security package at the Federal Ministry of the Interior. (dpa)
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Germany Expands Border Controls to Curb Irregular Migration and Extremism Risks

09 September 2024, Berlin: Nancy Faeser, Germany's Minister of the Interior and Home Affairs, speaks at a press conference on current measures in migration policy and the Federal Government's security package at the Federal Ministry of the Interior. (dpa)
09 September 2024, Berlin: Nancy Faeser, Germany's Minister of the Interior and Home Affairs, speaks at a press conference on current measures in migration policy and the Federal Government's security package at the Federal Ministry of the Interior. (dpa)

Germany's government ordered temporary controls at all land borders Monday, expanding checks it already has in place at some borders, saying that it was responding to irregular migration and to protect the country from extremist threats.

“We are strengthening our internal security through concrete action and we are continuing our tough stance against irregular migration,” Interior Minister Nancy Faeser said at a news conference.

The ministry said that it notified the European Union on Monday of the order to set up border controls at the land borders with France, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Belgium and Denmark for a period of six months. They will begin next week on Sept. 16.

This adds to restrictions already in place on the land borders with Poland, the Czech Republic, Austria and Switzerland.

“Until we achieve strong protection of the EU’s external borders with the new Common European Asylum System, we must increase controls at our national borders even more,” Faeser said.

She noted that Germany already has had more than 30,000 rejections of people seeking to cross its borders since last October.

“This served to further limit irregular migration and to protect against the acute dangers posed by terrorism and serious crime. We are doing everything we can to better protect people in our country against this,” she said.

The order comes as coalition government of Chancellor Olaf Scholz is facing pressure to take a tougher stance on irregular migration.

Last month, a deadly knife attack in Soligen killed three people. The perpetrator was a Syrian asylum-seeker who claimed to be inspired by the ISIS group.

Even more recently, police in Munich exchanged fire with a gunman near the Israeli Consulate last week, fatally wounding him. Authorities said they believe he was planning to attack the consulate on the 52nd anniversary of the attack on the 1972 Munich Olympics.

Germany has accepted large numbers of refugees from the Middle East over the past decade, but now a political backlash is building, with support growing for a far-right party. That party, Alternative for Germany, won its first state election earlier this month in Thuringia and had a strong showing in another state, Saxony.

In June, Scholz vowed that the country would start deporting criminals from Afghanistan and Syria again after a knife attack by an Afghan immigrant left one police officer dead and four other people wounded.

Germany deported Afghan nationals to their homeland on Aug. 30, the first time it did so since August 2021, when the Taliban returned to power. The government described the 28 Afghan nationals as convicted criminals, but didn't clarify what their offenses were.

The number of people applying for asylum in Germany last year rose to more than 350,000, an increase of just over 50% compared with the year before. The largest number of asylum-seekers came from Syria, followed by Turks and Afghans.