Xenophobia is rising in the ex-communist east of Germany and risks tarnishing its reputation as a place to do business, the government said on Wednesday as it published its annual report on the state of German unification.
Far-right violence and attacks on migrants rose dramatically last year, with riots and arson attacks on refugee shelters in the towns of Heidenau and Freital in Saxony state. More than one million, mainly Muslim migrants from the Middle East, Africa and Asia streamed into Germany over the course of 2015.
Right-wing extremism in all its forms poses a very serious threat for the social and economic development of the new states,” Iris Gleicke, the federal government’s commissioner for eastern German affairs, said, referring to the five states that comprised Communist East Germany from 1945 to 1990.
Germany recorded 1,408 violent acts carried out by rightist supporters last year, a rise of more than 42% from 2014, and 75 arson attacks on refugee shelters, up from five a year earlier, according to an annual report by the BfV domestic intelligence agency published in June.
It has also fuelled a surge in support for the right-wing populist AfD party, which has run an anti-migrant and Islamophobic campaign. Eastern states have been required to take in relatively few numbers of new arrivals compared to western states, under a quota system calculated by the size of the state’s population and income.
But instances where asylum seeker accommodation was set on fire and assaults against refugees have shot up dramatically in the region, noted Gleicke. “I am disturbed by this rising far-right and xenophobic violence. It is more than an alarm bell if the attacks and violence are backed by or quietly accepted by mainstream society,” she said, adding that the incidents had sparked outrage worldwide.
Former communist eastern Germany has been the scene of several ugly incidents in which far-right extremists have targeted asylum seekers. Clashes broke out last week between dozens of asylum seekers and far-right extremists in the eastern city of Bautzen, forcing police to call in reinforcements to quell the violence.
In February, a cheering crowd was seen outside a burning asylum shelter in the same town, clapping and shouting: “Good, that’s up in flames.” That same weekend, a video emerged of far-right thugs intimidating refugees, including crying children and preventing them from getting off a bus to get into another shelter in the eastern town of Clausnitz.
Sources: Reuters, AFP
