Call for greater protection for asylum seekers and policies targeting rightwing violence as report sounds ‘alarm bell’

Berlin has reported a marked increase in attacks on asylum seekers and refugee shelters, amid a sharp rise in far-right crime and a hardening of German migration policy.

Official figures provided at the request of two local Green party lawmakers showed there were 77 assaults on asylum seekers and refugees in 2024 and eight instances of deliberate damage to residences housing them.

This compares with 32 targeted attacks on people and none on residences in 2023, one of the deputies, Ario Ebrahimpour Mirzaie, told the news agency dpa.

As a result of the assaults, 34 people needed treatment in hospital, according to the official data. These included 16 women, 14 men, two girls and two males whose age was not reported.

  • Saleh@feddit.orgEnglish
    5·
    4 days ago

    The current mayor of Berlin Kai Wegner (CDU) won the repeated election for the state (the mayor is the head of the city-state government). He won it after demanding police should release the first names of juvenile suspects so that people could form an opinion on whether they are “real Germans” or “merely German citizens”.
    Franziska Giffey (SPD) who lead the former government coalition from the Social Democrats, Greens and Left party, decided to throw away a majority to continue the progressive coalition in favor of becoming junior partner under Kai Wegner and the CDU.

    The state of Berlin is governed by a coalition of racist nationalists and people who prefer helping racists nationalists rather than continue a progressive coalition.

    The increase in far right hate crime in Berlin was predictable and is in line with the political affiliation of the state government. It is consistent with the state government reversing progressive policies such as making more parts of the city walkable, more public transport and a green transition. It is consistent with the state government cracking down on academic freedom, cultural freedom, freedom of assembly, social institutions helping marginalized and disadvantaged groups…

    The multicultural Berlin is to be reshaped into a cosmopolitan facade for an otherwise authoritarian, racist and antisocial society. Whether people are “worthy” of living in Berlin will be determined more and more by the money in their bank account and the color of their skin.