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Crime

Near daily attacks on refugee centers

Nicole Goebel
November 6, 2017

Far-right attacks on refugee homes in Germany still happen nearly every day, statistics show. Though the total number of attacks is down, there are still more incidents than before the 2015 refugee crisis.

https://p.dw.com/p/2n5Ck
Refugee home in Montabaur
This refugee home in Montabaur in the Eifel region was attacked in June 2017Image: picture alliance/dpa/T. Frey

Fresh data from Germany's Federal Criminal Police Agency (BKA) obtained by German daily Neue Osnabrücker Zeitung shows that there have been 211 attacks on refugee homes throughout Germany in the first nine months of the year, plus an additional 15 incidents up to October 23.

Read more: 1.6 million people seek humanitarian protection in Germany 

The figure is down from nearly 900 attacks in the first nine months of 2016, but still higher than in 2014, a year before Germany took in more than 1 million refugees, more than any other country in Europe.

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According to the newspaper, the BKA stresses that the number of attacks is constant and amounts to around 70 attacks per quarter.

Most of the attacks had a far-right background, with offenses ranging from property damage to violent attacks, arson and even attacks using explosives.

At the height of the refugee emergency in 2015, attacks on detention centers peaked at 1,031 for the full year.