Attacks on refugee homes at the highest level in seven years

The number of politically motivated crimes against refugee accommodation has increased to the highest value since 2017. This emerges from late registrations by the Federal Government at a request from the Left Group in the Bundestag, as reported by the “Neue Osnabrücker Zeitung” (NOZ) (Thursday edition). According to this, 255 crimes were recorded last year with reference to refugee accommodation. In 2023, the number was significantly lower at 176. In 2017 it was 284.

The domestic politician of the left, Clara Bünger, justified the increase in attacks with a general shift to the right. “The social climate has shifted to the right in recent years,” said Bünger of NOZ. “It is not surprising that racists feel encouraged under these circumstances to threaten refugees, to attack them physically or to destroy their accommodations.”

According to Bünger, the AfD is not solely responsible for this. “From the SPD to AfD, there is extensive unity that as few refugees as possible.” Shakers are “marked as enemies and intruders who are to be rejected as a flat rate as possible at the borders”.

According to the Federal Ministry of the Interior’s response, 30 politically motivated crimes have so far been registered for the first quarter of 2025, in which refugee accommodations were crime scene or target. In six cases, the police were able to determine suspects.

The number of politically motivated crimes against refugees outside of accommodations also increased with the late registrations by the federal government in 2024: 287 acts of violence were violated, as a result of which 235 people were violated. This means that the number of attacks on refugees is slightly under the 2023 with 2450 incidents, but still at a high level. There were 249 such cases in the first quarter of this year.