Migrant crisis: Hostel assaults soar in Germany

German police said on Friday that five times more attacks were carried out on asylum hostels in Germany in 2015 than in 2014.

In 2015 the total was 1,005, compared with 199 in 2014, the police report said. The biggest rise in attacks on migrant hostels last year was registered in the mainly industrial state of North Rhine-Westphalia. Far-right activists are suspected in 90% of the cases.

Nearly 1.1 million people from war-torn Syria registered as asylum seekers in 2015.
Many local authorities have struggled to house them.

Germany is expanding its “safe countries” list hoping to curb the influx. But the influx also provides opportunities for the German economy.

Vice-Chancellor Sigmar Gabriel said. “The governing coalition plans to declare Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia safe countries of origin, making it easier to send migrants back”.

Last year Germany did the same for several Balkan nations including Albania, Bosnia-Hercegovina and Kosovo to cut the large numbers of migrants claiming asylum. Very few of their applications are granted.

State Interior Minister Ralf Jaeger said “investigators have noticed a marked increase in aggressive language” towards migrants on the internet.