The public prosecutor’s office is investigating an employee of a security service on suspicion of having raped two women in a refugee accommodation in Nuremberg. The investigations are not yet complete, said senior public prosecutor Heike Klotzbücher, but the man has been in custody since January. He is said to have raped one of the two women involved in a large number of cases, and the other several times. The attacks are said to have taken place between 2018 and 2022. Another security guard is also being investigated for a less serious case of sexual harassment in the same accommodation. First they had Nuremberg News reported.
Since the opening of the accommodation in the former “Hotel am Tiergarten” six years ago, organizations had repeatedly protested against the type of accommodation. The accommodation is exclusively for women and children. The house at the Tiergarten, located in the middle of the forest, was well suited as a hotel, says Farzaneh Ezati, board member of the international women’s café Imedana – but as accommodation for women it is extremely unsuitable. It is true that a security service is important for the women’s sense of security. However, one of the employees apparently had no protection against women. Time and time again, they have found that the abuses they complain about “are not believed,” says Ezati.
Johanna Böhm from the Bavarian Refugee Council also sharply criticizes the accommodation. The incidents showed a systemic problem: “problems with security services” were found again and again in large accommodations. Affected refugees are afraid of reprisals and negative effects on the recognition process if they ask for help. Also, many do not know who to turn to.
According to the government of Middle Franconia, 75 women live in the “shelter”, including from Uganda, Cuba, Syria and Ethiopia. As a result of the incidents, only female security guards are now working there, but they continue to be provided by the same security service “due to contractual obligations”.