Violent crime rises in Germany and is attributed to refugees
BERLIN (Reuters) - Young male refugees in Germany got the blame on
Wednesday for most of a two-year increase in violent crime, adding fuel
to the country’s political debate over migrants.
Violent crime rose by about 10 percent in 2015 and 2016, a study
showed. It attributed more than 90 percent of that to young male
refugees.
It noted, however, that migrants settling from war-torn
countries such as Syria were much less likely to commit violent crimes
that those from other places who were unlikely to be given asylum.
Migration
will be a key issue in forthcoming coalition talks between Chancellor
Angela Merkel’s conservatives and the centre-left Social Democrats
(SPD). The arrival of more than a million migrants since mid-2015 hurt
both parties in last September’s election.
The government-sponsored study showed a jump in violent crime committed by male migrants aged 14 to 30.
Christian
Pfeiffer, a criminology expert and one of the study researchers, told
Deutschlandfunk radio there were huge differences between various
refugee groups depending on where they came from and how high their
chances were of staying and gaining legal status in Germany.
Asylum
seekers who are regarded as war refugees who have relatively good
chances of staying in Germany tend to avoid trouble more, the study
found.
Around
17 percent of violent crimes in Lower Saxony that were attributed to
refugees, for example, were suspected of being committed by North
African asylum seekers who made up less than 1 percent of the state’s
registered refugee population. North African asylum seekers have
relatively slim chances of obtaining legal status in Germany.
“The
situation is completely different for those who find out as soon as
they arrive that they are totally undesirable here. No chance of
working, of staying here,” Pfeiffer said.
The study said
reuniting refugees with their families by allowing them to come to
Germany too could help to reduce violence. Such reunions look set to be a
particularly contentious issue in talks about a new coalition
government.
The predominantly young male majority of refugees
live in Germany without partners, mothers, sisters or other females whom
the study sees as a “violence-preventing, civilising force.”
