“Every lifesaver is ashamed of Mr. Wegner’s statements. As a president of the DLRG Berlin, he is no longer acceptable,” said the member of the Berlin House of Representatives to the German daily Tagesspiegel.
On Wednesday, in a post on the career portal Xing, Wegner had sharply criticized the NGOs that rescue migrants from distress in the Mediterranean. “Those who pick up people from real or staged distress to transfer them to Europe make themselves morally complicit in the deaths of innumerable people, who are only encouraged to seek immigration via the Mediterranean through the taxi services of the so-called sea rescue services.”
European immigration policy should not be left to criminal human smugglers and the taxi services of so-called sea rescue, stressed the CDU member of parliament.
The request from Lux was dismissed by Wegner. It is questionable whether Lux actually read Wegner’s text, because he is concerned that people are drowning in the Mediterranean. He also renewed his demand for a regulated immigration process, noted the Tagesspiegel.
Chairman Kevin Kühnert of the Youth organisation of the SPD, the Juso, accused Wegner on Twitter of using “AfD vocabulary”. The Berlin DLRG president called the accusation “dangerously incendiary and wrong”. In this way the AfD with Björn Höcke is being relativized warned Wegner.
In the past, the theologian Richard Schröder had criticized the actions of pro-migrant organisations in the Mediterranean. They provided de facto tug “services”, he said.