Germany's Interior Ministry has confirmed that at least two extremists have been allowed to enter the country due to manipulations in the application processing system at the BAMF Bremen office, German media reported.
One of the two extremists was identified as a potential terrorist threat, while the other was known to have connections with radical Islamists, an Interior Ministry spokeswoman told Germany's DPA news agency.
Another 44 accepted newcomers were also suspected of having ties to Islamist groups.
The statement came amid an inquiry into the activities of the Bremen office of the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees, which has reportedly permitted over 80 migrants to cross Germany's borders since 2000 instead of pointing them out to the authorities.
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All in all, the office's employees are said to have manipulated at least 1,200 asylum applications between 2013 and 2016. Following the scandal last month, the office was banned from processing any further asylum requests and an inquiry against its former head has been launched.
However, the officer under investigation claimed that the allegations were "nonsense" and slammed the government for making her responsible for its own failure to deal with Germany's migration crisis.
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Germany's migration office has attracted attention amid the ongoing refugee crisis and increasing terrorist threat in the country. According to the German newspaper Die Welt, five times more terror-related cases were opened in 2017 than in 2016.
The recent statistics have also shown that nearly half of Germans (44%) feel less secure than just a few years ago.
