Violent Backlash Against Migrants in Germany as Asylum-Seekers Pour In By MELISSA EDDYAUG. 13, 2015

Migrants waited outside a registration office for asylum seekers in Berlin last month. Credit Sean Gallup/Getty Images
Advertisement

Continue reading the main story

 

FREITAL, Germany — Even as Germany has been trying to accommodate a swelling stream of newcomers, the most anywhere in Europe, it is also experiencing a persistent pattern of violence against migrants, raising concerns about escalating far-right opposition.

Rights activists who monitor the treatment of refugees say while they are seeing an increase in hate crimes across Europe, particularly targeting Roma or asylum-seekers from Europe’s poorest countries, nowhere have they seen mass demonstrations or attacks on housing for refugees like those in Germany.

“We’ve seen many bad news stories from Germany, but not that many from other countries — not in the sense of calling it a growing trend,” said Thorfinnur Omarsson, a spokesman for the European Council on Refugees and Exiles, based in Brussels.

 

Medical care for Reem Sahwil, who has cerebral palsy and a shortened Achilles tendon, is among the reasons her family wants to stay in GermanyTearful Moment With Merkel Turns Migrant Girl Into a Potent SymbolJULY 20, 2015
video Anti-Immigration Movement Splits GermanyFEB. 11, 2015
video Germany’s Refugee CrisisDEC. 7, 2014
video Germany Anti-Immigrant Protest GrowsJAN. 12, 2015
In the first half of this year alone, more than 179,000 people applied for asylum in Germany, a country of about 80 million. That is an increase of 132 percent over the same period in 2014, with Syrians the largest group, the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees said.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *