Politically motivated crime up by 20%, Germany says

Far-right offenses against refugees and refugee facilities up fivefold; far-left violence up 18%

By AFP and ToI Staff 24 May 2016, 9:37 pm

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Illustrative: Muslim asylum seekers wait for their registration after arriving at a center for refugees in Giessen, Germany, on December 2, 2015 (AFP/DPA/Boris Roessler)

As Germany tries to grapple with record numbers of asylum seekers, the German government reported Monday that politically motivated crimes swelled by almost 20 percent in 2015.

Out of a total of nearly 39,000 recorded offenses, 23,000 were perpetrated by right-wingers (an increase of 35% over 2014) and 9,600 by the far left (up 17%).

Police recorded nearly 1,000 far-right offenses targeting refugee shelters last year, a fivefold annual rise.

Presenting the figures, Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere said he did not expect a lull in 2016.

Some 923 offenses against refugees and refugee facilities were recorded in 2015, against 175 the previous year, according Interior Ministry statistics on political crime in Germany.

An Afghan refugee girl blows bubbles while waiting on a bridge after she and other migrants spent the night waiting for their registration and transport by German police to a refugee shelter in Freilassing, Germany, Thursday, Sept. 24, 2015. (AP Photo/Muhammed Muheisen)

These included 177 acts of violence — including three attempted killings — and hundreds of nonviolent acts such as painting graffiti, the use of Nazi symbols and incitements to hatred.

“The refugee topic was of course the focus of politically motivated crime” last year, when Germany took in over one million asylum seekers, the minister told a Berlin press conference.

“A decline in the number of political crimes is not to be expected in 2016 unfortunately,” he said, adding that in this year’s first quarter there had been 347 crimes against refugee centers.

De Maiziere said that in 90 percent of far-right crimes the perpetrators were men, that three-quarters were aged 18 to 30, and that most lived close to the crime scene and nearly half were previously unknown to police.

Far-left offenses increased by 18 percent in 2015 to 9,600, including 2,246 acts of violence — an increase of nearly 35 percent — mostly targeting right-wing political opponents or police.