A Lebanese asylum seeker found guilty of attempting to burn down his asylum home said he did so out of frustration at not being given a job.
A court heard that 26-year-old Hussein F. had come to Germany two years ago from Dubai, where he had lived for six years, and paid £11,000 ($15,000) for a Schengen area visa
He was placed in an asylum home in Hannover where, on June 12th, he set his mattress on fire. His lawyer Tanja Brettschneider claimed the asylum seeker has snapped because he was “looking for a better life, but was not allowed to work”, German tabloid Bild reports.
The 26-year-old even gave warning to authorities of his plans in advance when he marched down to the city hall and demanded his own accommodation saying that otherwise, he would set the asylum home on fire.
It took 66 firemen, 14 police officers, and six paramedics two full hours to put out the blaze which caused £4,610 of damages. No one was injured in the fire.
The judge in the case found the asylum seeker guilty and handed down a suspended two-year sentence and 250 hours of community service. The judge warned that the sentence could have been far greater if anyone had been injured as the asylum seeker would have been charged with attempted murder.
Arson has become a frequent problem in German asylum homes, often initiated either by far-right supporters or by migrants themselves.
Last year in Dusseldorf a migrant, angry about not being woken up before sunrise to eat on Ramadan, lit a fire that engulfed the Dusseldorf Exhibition Centre.