A growing number of women and young girls housed in refugee shelters
in Germany are being raped, sexually assaulted and even forced into
prostitution by male asylum seekers, according to German social work
organizations with first-hand knowledge of the situation.
Many of the rapes are occurring in mixed-gender shelters, where, due
to a lack of space, German authorities are forcing thousands of male and
female migrants to share the same sleeping areas and restroom
facilities.
Conditions for women and girls at some shelters are so perilous that
females are being described as "wild game" fighting off Muslim male
predators. But many victims, fearing reprisals, are keeping silent,
social workers say.
At the same time, growing numbers of German women in towns and cities
across the country are being raped by asylum seekers from Africa, Asia
and the Middle East. Many of the crimes are being downplayed by German
authorities and the national media, apparently to avoid fueling
anti-immigration sentiments.
On August 18, a coalition of four social work organizations and
women's rights groups sent a two-page letter to the leaders of the
political parties in the regional parliament in Hesse, a state in
west-central Germany, warning them of the worsening situation for women
and children in the refugee shelters. The letter
said:
"The ever-increasing influx of refugees has complicated
the situation for women and girls at the receiving center in Giessen
(HEAE) and its subsidiaries.
"The practice of providing accommodations in large tents, the lack of
gender-separate sanitary facilities, premises that cannot be locked,
the lack of safe havens for women and girls — to name just a few spatial
factors — increases the vulnerability of women and children within the
HEAE. This situation plays into the hands of those men who assign women a
subordinate role and treat women traveling alone as 'wild game'.
"The consequences are numerous rapes and sexual assaults. We are also
receiving an increasing number of reports of forced prostitution. It
must be stressed: these are not isolated cases.
"Women report that they, as well as children, have been raped or
subjected to sexual assault. As a result, many women sleep in their
street clothes. Women regularly report that they do not use the toilet
at night because of the danger of rape and robbery on the way to the
sanitary facilities. Even during daylight, passing through the camp is a
frightful situation for many women.
"Many women — in addition to fleeing wars or civil wars — are also on
the run for gender-related reasons, including the threat of forced
marriage or genital mutilation. These women who face special risks,
especially when they are on the run alone or with their children. Even
if they are accompanied by male relatives or acquaintances, this does
not always ensure protection against violence because it can also lead
to specific dependencies and sexual exploitation.
"Most female refugees have experienced a variety of traumatizing
experiences in their country of origin and while on the run. They are
victims of violence, kidnappings, torture, rape and extortion —
sometimes over periods of several years.
"The feeling to have arrived here — in safety — and to be able to
move without fear, is a gift for many women.... We therefore ask
you...to join our call for the immediate establishment of protected
premises (locked apartments or houses) for women and children who are
travelling alone....
"These facilities must be equipped so that men do not have access to
the premises of the women, with the exception of emergency workers and
security personnel. In addition bedrooms, lounges, kitchens and sanitary
facilities must be interconnected so that they form a self-contained
unit — and thus can only be reached via lockable and monitored access to
the house or the apartment."
After several blogs (
here,
here and
here) drew attention to the letter, the
LandesFrauenRat (LFR) Hessen,
a women's lobbying group that originally uploaded the politically
incorrect document to its website, abruptly removed it on September 14,
without explanation.
The problem of rapes and sexual assaults in German refugee shelters is a nationwide problem.
In Bavaria, women and girls housed at a refugee shelter in
Bayernkaserne, a former military base in Munich, are subject to rape and forced prostitution on a daily basis,
according
to women's rights groups. Although the facility has separate dorm rooms
for women, the doors cannot be locked and men control access to the
sanitary facilities.
Approximately 80% of the refugees/migrants at the shelter are male, according to Bavarian Broadcasting (
Bayerischer Rundfunk), which
reports
that the price for sex with female asylum seekers is ten euros. A
social worker described the facility this way: "We are the biggest
brothel in Munich."
Police
insist
they have no proof that the rapes are taking place, although a police
raid on the facility found that guards hired to provide security at the
site were trafficking drugs and weapons and were turning a blind eye to
the prostitution.
On August 28, a 22-year-old Eritrean asylum seeker was
sentenced
to one year and eight months in prison for attempting to rape a
30-year-old Iraqi-Kurdish woman at a refugee shelter in the Bavarian
town of
Höchstädt. The reduced sentence was thanks to the efforts
of the defense attorney, who persuaded the judge that the defendant's
situation at the shelter was hopeless: "For a year now he sits around
and thinks about — about nothingness."
On August 26, a 34-year-old asylum seeker attempted to
rape a 34-year-old woman in the laundry room of a refugee facility in
Stralsund, a city near the Baltic Sea.
On August 6, police
revealed that a 13-year-old Muslim girl was raped by another asylum seeker at a refugee facility in
Detmold,
a city in west-central Germany. The girl and her mother reportedly fled
their homeland to escape a culture of sexual violence; as it turns out,
the man who raped the girl is from their country.
Although the rape took place in June, police kept silent about it for
nearly three months, until local media published a story about the
crime. According to an editorial comment in the newspaper
Westfalen-Blatt, police are
refusing
to go public about crimes involving refugees and migrants because they
do not want to give legitimacy to critics of mass migration.
Police chief Bernd Flake
countered
that the silence was aimed at protecting the victim. "We will continue
with this policy [of not informing the public] whenever crimes are
committed in refugee facilities," he said.
Over the weekend of June 12-14, a 15-year-old girl housed at a refugee shelter in
Habenhausen, a district in the northern city of Bremen, was repeatedly
raped by two other asylum seekers. The facility has been has been
described
as a "house of horrors" due to the spiraling violence perpetrated by
rival gangs of youth from Africa and Kosovo. A total of 247 asylum
seekers are
staying at the shelter, which has a capacity for 180 and a cafeteria with seating for 53.
Meanwhile, the raping of German women by asylum seekers is becoming
commonplace. Following are a few select cases just from 2015:
On September 11, a 16-year-old girl was
raped by an unidentified "dark-skinned man speaking broken German" close to a refugee shelter in the Bavarian town of
Mering. The attack occurred while the girl was walking home from the train station.
On August 13, police
arrested two Iraqi asylum seekers, aged 23 and 19, for raping an 18-year-old German woman behind a schoolyard in
Hamm, a city in North Rhine-Westphalia.
On July 26, a 14-year-old boy was sexually
assaulted inside the bathroom of a regional train in
Heilbronn,
a city in southwestern Germany. Police are looking for a "dark skinned"
man between the ages of 30 and 40 who has an "Arab appearance." Also on
July 26, a 21-year-old Tunisian asylum seeker
raped a 20-year-old woman in the Dornwaldsiedlung district of
Karlsruhe. Police kept the crime
secret until August 14, when a local paper went public with the story.
On June 9, two Somali asylum seekers, aged 20 and 18, were
sentenced to seven-and-a-half years in prison for raping a 21-year-old German woman in
Bad Kreuznach, a town in Rhineland-Palatinate, on December 13, 2014.
On June 5, a 30-year-old Somali asylum seeker called "Ali S" was
sentenced to four years and nine months in prison for attempting to rape a 20-year-old woman in
Munich.
Ali had previously served a seven-year sentence for rape, and had been
out of prison for only five months before he attacked again. In an
effort to protect the identity of Ali S, a Munich newspaper
referred to him by the more politically correct "Joseph T."
On May 22, a 30-year-old Moroccan man was
sentenced to four years and nine months in prison for attempting to rape a 55-year-old woman in
Dresden. On May 20, a 25-year-old Senegalese asylum seeker was
arrested after he attempted to rape a 21-year-old German woman at the Stachus, a large square in central
Munich.
On April 16, a 21-year-old asylum seeker from Iraq was
sentenced to three years and ten months in prison for raping a 17-year-old girl at festival in the Bavarian town of
Straubing in August 2014. On April 7, a 29-year-old asylum seeker was
arrested for the attempted rape of a 14-year-old girl in the town of
Alzenau.
On March 17, two Afghan asylum seekers aged 19 and 20 were
sentenced to five years in prison for the "particularly abhorrent" rape of a 21-year-old German woman in
Kirchheim, a town near Stuttgart, on August 17, 2014.
On February 11, a 28-year-old asylum seeker from Eritrea was
sentenced to four years in prison for raping a 25-year-old German woman in
Stralsund, along the Baltic Sea, in October 2014.
On February 1, a 27-year-old asylum seeker from Somalia was
arrested after attempting to rape women in the Bavarian town of
Reisbach.
On January 16, a 24-year-old Moroccan immigrant
raped a 29-year-old woman in
Dresden.
Dozens of other cases of rape and attempted rape — cases in which
police are specifically looking for foreign perpetrators (German police
often refer to them as
Südländer, or "southerners") — remain unresolved. Following is a partial list just for August 2015:
On August 23, a "dark skinned" man attempted to
rape a 35-year-old woman in
Dortmund. On August 17, three male "southerners" attempted to
rape a 42-year-old woman in
Ansbach. On August 16, a male "southerner"
raped a woman in
Hanau.
On August 12, a male "southerner" attempted to
rape a 17-year-old woman in
Hannover. Also on August 12, a male "southerner"
exposed himself to a 31-year-old woman in
Kassel. Police say a similar incident occurred in the same area on August 11.
On August 10, five men of "Turkish origin" attempted to
rape a girl in
Mönchengladbach. Also on August 10, a male "southerner"
raped a 15-year-old girl in
Rinteln. On August 8, a male "southerner" attempted to
rape a 20-year-old woman in
Siegen.
On August 3, a "North African"
raped a seven-year-old girl in broad daylight in a park in
Chemnitz, a city in eastern Germany. On August 1, a male "southerner" attempted to
rape a 27-year-old woman in downtown
Stuttgart.
Meanwhile, parents are being warned to look after their daughters. Police in the Bavarian town of
Mering, where a 16-year-old-girl was raped on September 11, have
issued
a warning to parents not to allow their children to go outside
unaccompanied. They have also advised women not to walk to or from the
train station alone because of its proximity to a refugee shelter.
In the Bavarian town of
Pocking, administrators of the Wilhelm-Diess-Gymnasium have
warned
parents not to let their daughters wear revealing clothing in order to
avoid "misunderstandings" with the 200 Muslim refugees housed in
emergency accommodations in a building next to the school. The letter
said:
"The Syrian citizens are mainly Muslim and speak Arabic.
The refugees have their own culture. Because our school is directly next
to where they are staying, modest clothing should be worn in order to
avoid disagreements. Revealing tops or blouses, short shorts or
miniskirts could lead to misunderstandings."
A local politician quoted by
Die Welt newspaper
said:
"When Muslim teenage boys go to open air swimming pools,
they are overwhelmed when they see girls in bikinis. These boys, who
come from a culture where for women it is frowned upon to show naked
skin, will follow girls and bother them without their realizing it.
Naturally, this generates fear."
The increase in sex crimes in Germany is being fueled by the
preponderance of Muslim males among the mix of refugees/migrants
entering the country.
Where are the women?
Of the 411,567 refugees/migrants who have entered the EU by sea so far
this year, 72% have been male. Above, some of the hundreds of migrants
who arrived in Munich on September 12, 2015.
|
A record 104,460 asylum seekers
arrived
in Germany in August, bringing the cumulative total for the first eight
months of 2015 to 413,535. Germany expects to receive a total of
800,000 refugees and migrants this year, a four-fold increase over 2014.
At least 80% of the incoming refugees/migrants are Muslim, according to a
recent estimate by the Central Council of Muslims in Germany (
Zentralrat der Muslime in Deutschland, ZMD), a Muslim umbrella group based in Cologne.
The asylum seekers are also overwhelmingly male. Of the 411,567
refugees/migrants who have entered the European Union by sea so far this
year, 72% have been male, 13% women and 15% children, according to
calculations by the United Nations Refugee Agency. Information about the gender of those arriving by land remains unavailable.
Of the asylum seekers arriving in Germany in 2014, 71.5% of those
between ages 16 and 18 were male; 77.5% in the 18-25 age group were
male; as were 73.5% of those between 25 and 30, according to German
migration
statistics. Data for 2015 is not yet available.
Soeren Kern is a Senior Fellow at the New York-based Gatestone Institute.
He is also Senior Fellow for European Politics at the Madrid-based
Grupo de Estudios Estratégicos / Strategic Studies Group. Follow him on Facebook and on Twitter.
Some,
like Germany, the destination of many of the migrants who knew of
German Chancellor Angela Merkel's willing absorption of a million
migrants was their target, but the state, under growing pressure from
alarmed German citizens along with violent incidents emanating from a
proportion of the migrants, reversed its earlier stance. Countries of
the European Union mandated to accept a share of the migrants to relieve
the burden on Italy and Greece, finally felt they had reached the
limits of their absorption capacity and balked at accepting additional
migrants.
![Asylum seekers gather around the only wifi-hotspot inside Moria camp. With just emergency cases allowed to travel to Greece's mainland, where conditions are generally better, many have to wait for more than 12 months until their claims are processed. [Kevin McElvaney/Al Jazeera]](https://www.aljazeera.com/mritems/Images/2018/1/18/30e34b0a6b2e4ec78f1df495d5c60db1_8.jpg)
![An improvised shelter can be seen inside and outside Moria camp. Often just provided with summer tents, people try to make those fit for winter and the harsh weather conditions. [Kevin McElvaney/Al Jazeera]](https://www.aljazeera.com/mritems/Images/2018/1/18/079f3aa4f696453394e849a9442268da_8.jpg)
![At night, there are many open fires inside the camp. The wood comes from the forest and olive grove surrounding the area, which leads to tensions with the local farmers. [Kevin McElvaney/Al Jazeera]](https://www.aljazeera.com/mritems/Images/2018/1/18/0495368000784bd396ef91e3042a9f62_8.jpg)
