After the New Year’s Eve riot, the integration officer warns of general suspicion against migrants
“The 13th integration course doesn’t help, only the public prosecutor can help.”
“It’s not the first incident of this kind in Berlin,” explains Stefan Heck (CDU) from the Committee on the Interior and Homeland. In the WELT interview, he talks about the riots on New Year’s Eve and the numerous criminals with a migration background.
After the attacks on rescue workers on New Year’s Eve, integration officer Reem Alabali-Radovan warns against generalizations. Perpetrators should be judged on the basis of their actions, not on the basis of their assumed origin.
NAfter the riots on New Year’s Eve, the Federal Government’s Commissioner for Integration, Reem Alabali-Radovan (SPD), warned against general suspicion of migrants. “We have to judge the perpetrators based on their actions, not based on their assumed origin, as some are now doing,” the officer told the Funke media group newspapers on Tuesday.
Alabali-Radovan warned against generalizations: “Anyone who now reacts with general suspicion towards people with an immigrant background contributes to further stigmatization and division of our society instead of fighting the social causes of the problem.” Alabali-Radovan called the acts of violence on New Year’s Eve “disgusting”. They would have to be punished quickly and consistently with the full severity of our constitutional state.
Spahn shares responsibility for failed integration
The deputy chairman of the Union faction, Jens Spahn (CDU), had previously made a failed integration policy partly responsible for the escalation. Politicians in Germany must seriously ask themselves why the New Year’s Eve celebrations keep escalating in the same places with the same participants, Spahn told the “t-online” portal on Monday. “It’s more about unregulated migration, failed integration and a lack of respect for the state instead of fireworks,” said Spahn.
The German police union called for an investigation into the origin of the perpetrators. Many of the attackers came from the “migrant milieu,” said union boss Rainer Wendt on Monday to “Focus Online”. After New Year’s Eve, many emergency services had the impression that “groups of young men with a migration background were far overrepresented in these riots”.
The AfD accused authorities and the media on Tuesday of ignoring the connection between the New Year’s Eve riots and alleged perpetrators with a migration background. Politicians must “finally make it clear that the people who came to our country seeking protection and are now showing their complete contempt for our traditions and values and are becoming criminals have no business in Germany,” explained party Vice Stephan Brandner.
The federal government initially did not provide any information as to which groups were responsible for the attacks. A spokeswoman for the Federal Ministry of the Interior said on Monday that there was “still no overview of suspects”. She referred to the general situation report for 2021, which recorded around 88,600 assaults on police officers. Of the known perpetrators, 84 percent are male and 70 percent are German citizens.
