With the increased number of refugees, attacks on refugee accommodation in Germany have increased again for the first time since 2015. In 2022 there were 121 attacks on refugee shelters. In the previous year there were 70 such crimes, according to a response from the Federal Ministry of the Interior to a request from the left-wing faction. About the preliminary numbers had the first New Osnabrück newspaper reported.
Corona requirements were relaxed last year, and the number of refugees in Germany increased. Around 218,000 initial applications for asylum were made in 2022. In addition, there were around a million people who fled Ukraine. The authorities also recorded 1,248 attacks against asylum seekers or refugees outside of accommodation last year. That was about as many as in the previous year, when 1,259 cases were counted, as the information shows.
According to the Ministry of the Interior, the numbers are still low compared to 2015. At that time, when a particularly large number of refugees came to Germany within a short period of time, 1047 attacks on refugee accommodation were counted over the course of the year. Since then, the number has decreased every year.
In 2017 there were 284 such crimes, in 2020 84, and then 70 in 2021. These are robberies, attacks, property damage and physical attacks. Left-wing MP Clara Bünger, who made the request, sees “right-wing propaganda” as the reason for the increase in attacks. She calls on all democratic forces to “show a clear edge against right-wing and racist violence”. Parliamentarians must finally stop “constantly portraying migration as a danger and warning against allegedly ‘illegal refugees’ on the Balkan route.”