A massive, migrant crime wave is surging across Germany according to figures buried in a new report released by the country’s Interior Ministry. The data reveals that without migrants considered, crime rates in Germany would have remained roughly static since 2014. But, in fact, the country recorded an extra 402,741 crimes committed by migrants.
While much of this criminality concerned illegal border crossings, German authorities instead talked up a “record surge” in crimes by “right wing radicals”.
Concerning statistics from the 135-page report reveal that 70 per cent of pickpocketing, one of the crime types on the rise, was committed by non-Germans. Of this figure, 34 per cent was committed by recent asylum seekers, with the rest committed by “non-Germans”.
Foreign nationals are thought to account for around 11 or 12 per cent of the total population of Germany, but were over-represented in every area of crime.
Illegal immigrants and asylum seekers account for around 2.5 per cent of Germany’s population, but were also massively overrepresented.
Amongst total offences, non-Germans accounted for 27.6 percent while illegal immigrants and asylum seekers accounted for 5.7 percent. Of homicides, the figures are 29.3%/8.2%, and of sexual assaults, the figures were 20.5%/4.8%.
In all of these cases as well as those indicated in the chart below, non-Germans and illegal migrants outstripped their proportions of crime to their representation in German society.
Non-Germans accounted for 38 per cent of all robberies, 38 per cent of thefts, and 43 per cent of thefts that involved a level of aggravation such as assault or force.
They accounted for 40.2 per cent of burglaries, 43.5 per cent of shoplifting, and a whopping 75.7 of pick pocketing or purse snatching.
In the chart below, non-Germans are in light red while asylum seekers and illegal migrants are in deep red.
And of migrant crimes specifically, Syrians top the list of migrant crimes that are not related to border controls, with a total of 10,348 individual offences in 2015. They also led assault cases among migrants, with 3,186 offences in 2015.
Thefts were most committed by Albanians, with 6,689 offences and Algerians coming close with 5,611. Algerians almost tie with Serbians when it comes to fraud. Balkan nationals were accountable for 2,834 cases, barely above North Africans’ 2,774.
Algerians top the list for smuggling goods (2,449) and also top the list for drug selling offences (976).
Even when border control breaches are exempted from the data, the situation is still stark. Male crime is stagnant amongst Germans, but when migrants are added, male crime goes up 12 per cent, with female crime rising just 6 per cent. This reflects the fact that most migrants into Europe in 2015 were young men.
Crime rates amongst “non-Germans” outside the residence act are up 13 per cent, whereas crimes committed by Germans are down 5 per cent.
And the report shows that offences against the Residence Act, the Asylum Procedures Act, and the Freedom of Movement Act are up by 157.5 per cent, with shopliftings up by 7.1 per cent, pickpocketing up by 7.0 per cent, burglary up by 9.9 per cent, and drug offences up by 2.1 per cent.
Presenting the report to journalists however, Mr. de Maiziere insisted in focusing on “politically-motivated crimes by the far-right” which he said had risen 35 percent in 2015 to nearly 23,000.
“The sharp increase in politically motivated crime points to a dangerous development in society,” de Maiziere told reporters at a news conference. “We are witnessing a growing and increasingly pronounced readiness to use violence, both by right- and left-wing extremists.”
But while attacks on refugee centre rose to 1,031 compared to 199 in the prior year, most of the offences committed appear to be what could be called “thought crime”, or what police describe as “evidence that they aimed to eliminate certain constitutional principles”.
Of a total of 38,981 political crimes committed in 2015, some 29,681 (76.1 per cent) were classed under this category.
Of real incidents, 1,031 were attacks on asylum centres, but just 177 of these were thought to be “violent”, with most of the rest believed to be “propaganda” offences or vandalism.
And according to the statistics, identified left wingers have had more confrontations with police (3,507 incidents), according to the statistics, than right wingers have (1,203 incidents). Left-wing activists have confronted more right wingers (4,276 incidents) than vice versa (1,406 incidents). These incidents include public protests like those of the PEGIDA movement.
Nonetheless, the reporting from Western news agencies has focused on a “right wing” wave of violence.
Earlier this month, when Republican Party presumptive nominee Donald Trump alleged “[L]ook at Germany, it’s crime-riddled right now”, organisations like Politifact were quick to crow about how immigrants accounted for fewer crimes than native Germans.
But today’s statistics reveal that as a percentage of the population, non-Germans and illegal immigrants account for a massively disproportionate amount of crime in Germany.