Rightwing violence surges in Germany

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/may/23/germany-rightwing-violence-surges-asylum-seekers

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The number of violent crimes with a rightwing political motive rose more than 40% in Germany last year accompanying a large influx of migrants into the country, the government has said. The number of crimes committed by foreigners was also up more than 10%.

German authorities recorded 1,485 violent far-right crimes last year, up from 1,029 the previous year, according to annual crime statistics. As the number of homes for asylum seekers grew, so too did attacks on them, which more than quadrupled to 923. Acts of violence against those homes increased to 177 from 26 the previous year.

The interior ministry reported a large increase in the broader category of “hate crimes”, offences of a racist or antisemitic nature or targeting people because of their religion. They rose 77% to 10,373 from 5,858 the previous year.

“The rise in rightwing politically motivated crime is above all evident in the xenophobic incidents,” the interior minister, Thomas de Maizière, told reporters on Monday. “That is unacceptable and will be met toughly by the police and justice system.”

De Maizière noted that the number of leftwing violent crimes was even higher than those on the right, rising 34.9% to 2,246 incidents, largely directed against the police.

There was a greater influx of migrants in 2015 to Germany than any other European country. Nearly 1.1 million people were registered as asylum seekers, though the actual number who came is believed to be somewhat lower.

While many Germans were welcoming, there has been strong opposition from a vocal minority, and concern over increasing anti-foreigner violence. A string of sexual assaults and robberies on New Year’s Eve in Cologne blamed primarily on foreigners also fed fears and fuelled a nationwide debate over immigration policies.

De Maizière said by far the largest category of crimes committed by foreigners in 2015 were crimes that can only be committed by migrants, such as illegal entry to the country or failure to register with authorities.

The number of those offences more than doubled to 402,741 from 156,396 and “distort the picture of security in our country”, accounting largely for a 4.1% increase overall in all offences recorded by police last year, he said. Excluding those offences exclusively concerning foreigners, the overall number was barely changed at slightly over 5.9 million, he said.

Excluding the foreigner-specific crimes, Germans committed three-quarters of offences recorded in 2015, but crimes by non-Germans were up 12.8%, including document forgery, pickpocketing and home burglaries, De Maizière said.

The highest number of foreigners involved in crimes were nationals from Turkey, accounting for 13.3% of the total, Romania at 9.4%, Poland at 8%, Serbia at 4.8% and Italy 4.3%.

Syrians were involved in 2.6% of the crimes, Afghans 1.8% and Iraqis 1.6%.