German Police Want Refugees Kept Away from Carnival

© Kai Pfaffenbach / Reuters

Police in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia are facing heavy criticism after an email surfaced in which they asked refugee centers not to organize carnival visits for their residents and tell them to willingly submit to police searches.

The letter, which was sent out by NRW police in anticipation of the kickoff of Cologne’s carnival celebrations on February 23, sparked outrage among politicians after being published by the local newspaper Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger.

The letter cites security concerns in asking municipal-run refugee centers not to organize excursions to Karneval festivities for their residents this year in order to avoid “undesirable interactions” between the asylum seekers and the population. It also asked the centers to advise their residents to submit to police searches “without complaint.”

The letter was reportedly sent to 13 refugee facilities and state authorities in Cologne.

The police eventually confirmed that the letter had been sent out, but the state’s Interior Ministry has tried to distance itself from the email, saying it was “internal” and “unauthorized.”

“I won’t be telling the [refugee] families we have living here that they can’t go to the carnival parade,” Petra Jennen, an official from the central refugee center in Leverkusen, told the KSA, saying she had been “embarrassed” by the letter.

A number of German politicians have also expressed outrage over the email, accusing the NRW police of targeting asylum seekers.

“The accusation of racial profiling is rightly being made,” Marion Heuser, spokeswoman on political affairs for the Green party, wrote on Facebook, adding “the refugee council has pointed out that we live in a state of law in which no one must put up with being singled out for special treatment without complaint.”

Actually, it is not racial profiling since migrants come from several different countries and two different continents; so many races are involved. If anything, it is religious profiling for all those who committed acts of sexual abuse at EU carnivals and celebrations since 2015 have been Muslims.

Is that better than racial profiling? No! But until such people learn that molesting girls and women is not acceptable behaviour in Germany, then they should be given fewer opportunities to do so. To do otherwise is an admission that such behaviour IS acceptable, or at least preferable to insulting child molesters.

“Karneval should be understood as a colorful and mixed celebration. And now refugees should be kept away from it? Is this about a subject feeling of safety again?” she added, as cited by The Local.

Councilor Lisa Gerlach of the Pirate Party voiced similar concerns

“How far it has already come,” she said, adding “we pirates expressly advocate that refugee helpers explain to the asylum seekers the importance of the carnival and then celebrate with them – because only in this way can integration succeed.”

Arrrrrgh! I guess she thinks German girls are tough enough to handle a little sexual abuse. Good grief!

Karneval celebrations in NRW, Germany’s most populous state, go back to at least 1823, when they were part of local resistance to the influence of French and Prussian occupation. The festivities in Cologne attract millions of visitor annually.

The state’s police are challenged to balance their approach to refugees. In January of 2016, they came under fierce criticism for their lax response to a spree of sexual assaults committed on New Year’s Eve, which were attributed to asylum-seekers and illegal immigrants. The national media was also slammed for failing to adequately cover the issue.

The Cologne police came under fire again during New Year’s celebrations this year for using the term “Nafri” to refer to North African immigrants. It was later revealed that, of the more than 650 people asked for ID, only a handful were actually from North Africa, prompting accusations of racial profiling.

Cologne Mass Sex Assaults (Now Over 200) Appear Planned, Co-ordinated

Cologne mass sex assaults appear planned, co-ordinated, German justice minister says

Merkel's open-door policy scrutinized amid assaults, news Paris knife attacker lived in Germany

The Associated Press

German Justice Minister Heiko Maas delivers remarks in Berlin on the assaults
in Cologne, Germany, on New Year's Eve. He said it is possible the attacks
are linked to similar offences in other cities. (Britta Pedersen/Associated Press)

German authorities need to quickly determine whether a string of New Year's Eve sexual assaults and robberies in Cologne blamed largely on foreigners may be linked to similar offences in other cities, the justice minister said in comments published Sunday.

Authorities and witnesses say the attackers were among about 1,000 people, mostly men, gathered at Cologne's central train station, some of whom broke off into small groups that groped and robbed women.

"If such a horde gathers in order to commit crimes, that appears in some form to be planned," Justice Minister Heiko Maas told the newspaper Bild. "Nobody can tell me that this was not co-ordinated or prepared."

The attacks are still being investigated, but police have said their focus is on suspects of primarily North African origin, which has put pressure on Chancellor Angela Merkel's government and its open-door policy to asylum seekers. Nearly 1.1 million refugees and migrants arrived in Germany in 2015 alone.

She announced a proposal Saturday that would make it easier to deport refugees and migrants who commit crimes, which still needs parliamentary approval.

Cologne police said Sunday that 516 criminal complaints had now been filed with them in connection to the New Year's Eve attacks, about 40 per cent of which involve allegations of sexual offences (over 200). 

They also announced that on Saturday night they arrested a 19-year-old Moroccan man on allegations he stole a 23-year-old woman's cellphone on New Year's Eve, and had identified 19 other suspects by name. Police said the Moroccan, who they said has been involved in various crimes since 2013, isn't accused of a sexual offence, but the investigation is ongoing.


Paris knife attacker linked to Germany 

In a separate development that seemed likely to provide more grist for opponents of Merkel's policies, police in the western state of North Rhine-Westphalia on Saturday raided an apartment at a shelter for asylum seekers in Recklinghausen that they said had been occupied by an extremist who French police fatally shot on Thursday as he ran up to a Paris police station wielding a butcher's knife and wearing a fake explosives vest.

French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said in remarks Sunday that the man was also believed to have lived in Luxembourg and Switzerland.

The mug shot (left) provided Sunday, Jan. 10, 2016 by the police in Duesseldorf, western Germany, shows a man that applied for asylum in Germany with name Walid Salihi. 

The man was fatally shot by French police on Thursday as he ran up to a Paris police station wielding a butcher's knife and wearing a fake explosives vest. 

He had first entered Germany in 2013 after living for five years illegally in France, and had gone by at least seven names, identifying himself as a Tunisian, Moroccan and Georgian. (Landeskriminalamt Recklinghausen via Associated Press)

North Rhine-Westphalia state police chief Uwe Jacob described the suspect as a smalltime criminal known to authorities by several aliases, who had a record that included weapons charges, drug trafficking and causing bodily harm and had spent at least a month in jail.

He said there are no indications the man was part of an extremist network, but that a self-drawn Islamic State flag was found in his room, the dpa news agency reported.

At a news conference in Duesseldorf, Jacob told reporters that the man had first entered Germany in 2013 after living for five years illegally in France, and had gone by at least seven names, identifying himself as a Tunisian, Moroccan and Georgian. He lived in several German cities and moved to Recklinghausen at the beginning of last August.


Suspects called 'modern-day nomads'

Separately, police in Hamburg are also investigating sexual assaults and thefts in the St. Pauli district similar to those in Cologne, which occurred on a smaller scale in the northern city on New Year's Eve. Authorities in Sweden and Finland are also investigating similar incidents in their countries.

"All connections must be carefully checked," Maas said. "There is a suspicion that a particular date was chosen with expected crowds. That would then be a new dimension."

Of an initial 31 suspects detained by police for questioning, 18 were asylum seekers but there were also two Germans, an American and others, and none of them were accused specifically of committing sexual assaults.

Women shout slogans and hold up a placard that reads 'Against Sexism - Against Racism' as they march through the main railways station of Cologne on Jan. 5. 

About 90 women have reported being robbed, threatened or sexually molested at the New Year's celebrations outside Cologne's cathedral by young men. (Wolfgang Rattay/Reuters )

Police have released few details, but Bild on Sunday said one, a 22-year-old Tunisian, was registered at a refugee centre in a neighbouring state, while two Moroccans aged 18 and 23, were apparently in the country illegally, according to their attorney.

"Our clients are modern nomads," attorney Ingo Lindemann told the newspaper. "They're not war refugees, but more like grown street children who move with the flow of refugees across Europe."

Cologne police wouldn't confirm the report on the three and Lindemann didn't immediately return a phone call or an email.

Participants of a women's flash mob demonstrate against racism and sexism
 in Cologne, Germany, Sat Jan 9, 2016. (Juergen Schwarz/Associated Press)

Not Just Germany Reporting Mob Sex Abuse on New Years Eve

Cologne police chief removed after New Year's Eve attacks

From BBC Europe

The assaults on women led to an increased police presence
outside the station next to Cologne cathedral

The head of Cologne's police force is leaving his post "to restore public trust in the police" following scores of attacks on women in the city on New Year's Eve.

The police's handling of the night's events has been sharply criticised.

The violence outside the main railway station has sparked a debate about Germany's open door policy on migrants.

The anti-immigration Pegida group has said it will hold a demonstration in Cologne on Saturday. Police are expecting around 1,000 people to gather in front of the city's main train station, German media reports say.

Gangs of men described as of North African and Arab appearance were reported to be behind the attacks on New Year's Eve. A group of about 1,000 had gathered at the station in the western city.

Victims described chaos as dozens of sexual assaults and robberies were carried out with little apparent response from the authorities.

A man is led away by police officers at the main train station in
Cologne, Germany (early 01 January 2016) Image copyrightEPA

Police did make some arrests in the early hours of New Year's Day. Federal authorities say they have identified 18 asylum-seekers among 31 suspects linked to crimes committed in Cologne on New Year's Eve.

The suspects include nine Algerians, eight Moroccans, four Syrians, five Iranians, two Germans and one each from Iraq, Serbia and the US.

The state interior minister of North Rhine-Westphalia, Ralf Jaeger said on Friday that he had suspended police chief Wolfgang Albers from his duties. He has been accused of holding back information about the attacks, in particular about the origin of the suspects.

Mr Jaeger said the removal would not affect the investigation into the events of 31 December.

"People rightly want to know what happened on New Year's Eve, who the perpetrators are and how such events can be prevented in future," he said.

Discomfort under the surface :German media reaction

Debating rules on deporting criminals is a distraction, writes Heribert Prantl in the Sueddeutsche Zeitung. The law already provides for the deportation of criminal refugees, he says - the problem is the mistakes made by the police on the night and their inability to enforce the law.

Writing in the Frankfurter Allgemeiner Zeitung, Christian Geyer largely agrees. Whether or not Syrians, Afghans and Iraqis with asylum seeker status were among the perpetrators changes nothing in the debate, he writes. The questions for the police and justice system remain the same.

And while Chancellor Merkel's asylum policies are controversial, she doesn't need the help of favourable police reports, he adds.

Chancellor Merkel's friendly face is gone, writes Philipp Wittrock in Der Spiegel. The chancellor recognised that the events in Cologne had the potential to sow mistrust, divide society, and damage her political standing.

Discomfort in her own party at her welcoming asylum seekers continues to bubble under the surface, he writes.

Women describe 'terrible' assaults
"Twenty or 30 men surrounded us and we couldn't even move anymore"

The federal police is responsible for the station itself but not the area nearby.

Separately, Cologne police are investigating 21 people in connection with the sexual assaults. It is not known how many of these are asylum seekers.

The state police have recorded 170 complaints of crimes, 117 of which involve sexual assault. There were two allegations of rape.

Two men, aged 16 and 23 and apparently of North African origin, arrested overnight on Thursday in connection with the sex attacks, have been released without charge, according to German media.

Police Chief Wolfgang Albers (right) went after criticism from
Cologne Mayor Henriette Reker

'Clear signals'

German Chancellor Angela Merkel has condemned the violence, saying Germany should examine whether enough was being done to ensure foreigners convicted of crimes in the country are deported.

She said "clear signals" had to be sent to those not prepared to abide by German law.

In a separate case, police have arrested four Syrians, aged between 14 and 21, over the suspected gang rape of two teenage girls in the southern German town of Weil am Rhein on New Year's Eve, according to German media.

The attack is not believed to be connected to the events in Cologne, the police statement said.

Young men gather outside Cologne's main station on 31 Dec CopyrightAP
Police say women were forced to "run the gauntlet" through
gangs of drunk and aggressive men

The identification of the attackers in Cologne as North African or Arab in appearance has caused alarm in Germany because of the influx of more than a million migrants and refugees in the past year.

There has also been outrage outside Germany, with Slovakian Prime Minister Robert Fico calling for an extraordinary EU summit on the influx of migrants.

Politicians were continuing "to trivialise - even after the attacks in Cologne and other European cities - the security risks associated with unregulated and uncontrolled migration within the EU," he said.

Meanwhile German officials have warned that anti-immigrant groups have been trying to use the attacks to stir up hatred.

Elsewhere in Europe

Similar attacks to those seen in Cologne were also reported in Hamburg and in Stuttgart.

Police in several other European countries have also received complaints:

In Finland, police said they received reports of "widespread sexual harassment" in Helsinki on New Year's Eve, which they described as "a completely new phenomenon"

Police in the Swedish city of Kalmar have arrested two men over complaints by at least 15 women of sexual molestation

Austrian Interior Minister Johanna Mikl-Leitner pledged that police would take a "no tolerance" approach towards sexual assault after complaints of attacks in the city of Salzburg

Police in the Swiss city of Zurich said about six women had reported being robbed and sexually assaulted on New Year's Eve in attacks "a little bit similar" to those in Germany

Social media responses

"I feel so ashamed" - Anger on Arab-language social media

Facebook user Israa Ragab: "Every time I watch the TV and hear them saying the suspects could be from North Africa or Arabs I feel so ashamed and disgusted"

Deutsche Welle Arabic journalist Nahla Elhenawy: "The ugliness of our region is reaching Germany"

@Farcry99 on Twitter: "Will Europe regret receiving people who suffer from religious and political repression?"

Cologne Attacks: German Police Say New Year's Assaults May Be Linked to Criminal Network

About 90 people filed complaints related to string of sexual assaults and thefts during Dec. 31 celebrations

The Associated Press

Women hold up placards that read 'Mrs. Merkel: Where are you? What are you saying? This worries us!' during a protest in front of the Cologne Cathedral. About 90 people have reported being robbed, threatened or sexually molested during New Year's celebrations in the German city. (Wolfgang Rattay/Reuters)

Germany says nearly 1.1 million people registered as asylum-seekers in 2015

Police in Germany said Wednesday they are investigating whether a string of sexual assaults and thefts during New Year's celebrations in Cologne is linked to a known criminal network in the nearby city of Duesseldorf.

The assaults last week have prompted outrage in Germany and a fresh debate about immigration, after police said the perpetrators appeared to be of "Arab or North African origin."

Cologne cathedral

A more nuanced picture of what happened in the New Year's Eve chaos outside the Cologne train station emerged Wednesday.

Police said about 1,000 men gathered there and that smaller groups surrounded individual women, harassed them and stole their belongings. Police do not believe all 1,000 men were involved in the attacks.

The interior minister of North Rhine-Westphalia state, where Cologne and Duesseldorf are located, told news agency dpa that police have identified three suspects but have not yet arrested anyone.

About 90 people filed criminal complaints, though police have not said how many of them were women who were sexually assaulted. At least one woman said she was raped.

Police said some of the assaults in Cologne appeared similar to incidents that have been reported over the past two years in Duesseldorf, where men have groped women to distract them before stealing their belongings. The two cities are 40 kilometres apart.

Markus Niesczeri, a spokesman for Duesseldorf police, said that since the start of 2014, officers there have identified more than 2,000 suspects of North African origin in connection with organized thefts, though he did not say how many. He declined to say whether there have been any arrests in those cases.

Duesseldorf police were working closely with their counterparts in Cologne to determine whether crimes in the two cities might be connected, Niesczeri said.

Authorities have cautioned that the nationality and residency status of the Cologne suspects is still unknown, since no one has been arrested.

Germany registered nearly 1.1 million people as asylum seekers last year, according to Interior Ministry figures released Wednesday, and politicians who have called for limits on migration have seized on the incident in Cologne to bolster their position.

Germany's top security official stressed that those involved must be punished regardless of where they come from. Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere said that "you cannot draw a general suspicion against refugees from the indications that they were perhaps people who looked North African."

He added that "a bit of patience is necessary to clear up as completely as possible the structure of the perpetrators and the organizational structures there might have been," including whether there was any link to similar, smaller-scale incidents on New Year's Eve in Hamburg.

De Maiziere noted that, under German law, criminal behavior has a direct effect on a person's asylum proceedings if he or she is sentenced to at least three years in prison. He said that "we will have to talk about whether that needs to be changed."

In any case, "anyone who commits serious crimes, whatever status he is in, must reckon with being deported from Germany," de Maiziere said.

Large Crowd of Muslim Migrant Men Molest Girls in German City

‘New dimension of crime’: Crowd of ‘Arab origin’ blamed for mass sexual assaults in Cologne on New Years Eve

Cologne, Germany © Report24 / YouTube

New Year’s celebrations in the western German city of Cologne escalated into chaos with a series of sexual assaults, including a rape, being blamed on an uncontrolled crowd of intoxicated men of “Arab or North African” origin.

The mass attack on women that happened “in the middle of the city” around Cologne Central Station on New Year's Eve was “an intolerable situation,” Chief of Police Wolfgang Albers told reporters.

So far the authorities in Cologne have received 60 complaints. The crowd of around 1,000 men attacked people in the city center in what Albers described as a “crime of a whole new dimension.”

According to report up to 1,000 heavily intoxicated men of “Arab or North African” origin flooded the city’s famous square between its central train station and Gothic cathedral. Aged between 15 and 35, the crowd began throwing firecrackers and shooting fireworks as the new year arrived.

While the festivities were happening to the sound of of cheers, some men began sexually assaulting women and pick-pocketing feasters. Some 60 criminal complaints have so far been officially filed, including at least one allegation of rape.

Authorities expect more victims to come forward in the next few days. Local media meanwhile reported that at least 80 people fell victim to the gangs, 35 of whom were subjected to sexual assaults. One of the victims, named only as Katja L, told Der Express about her ordeal with the crowd of men who assaulted her buttocks and breasts.

“I was groped everywhere. It was a nightmare. Although we shouted and beat them, the guys did not stop. I was desperate and think I was touched around 100 times in the 200 meters,” she said. “Fortunately I wore a jacket and trousers. A skirt would probably have been torn away from me.”

To quell the New Year’s disturbance in Cologne, the police deployed more than 200 officers, involving 143 local policemen in addition to 70 federal officers, The Local reported. On Sunday, police arrested five men at the station who had been accused of threatening and robbing females.

New Year’s attacks has sparked a strong wave of criticism of German handling of the migrant open-door policy introduced by Chancellor Angela Merkel in September that resulted in over a million of refugees intake in Germany.

To address the migrant threat, Cologne’s Mayor Henriette Reker called in a crisis meeting for Tuesday, to deal with crimes she called “monstrous.”

“We cannot tolerate this development of lawlessness,” Reker told the Kolner Stadt-Anzeiger newspaper.

Yeah, good luck with that.

The state interior minister for North Rhine-Westphalia, said that swift action is needed to stop such crimes from reoccurring.

“We will not accept that groups of North African men gather expressly for the purpose of debasing women by sexually assaulting them,” Ralf Jager said in an interview with the local ‘Express’ newspaper.

Meanwhile the leader of the North Rhine-Westphalia branch of Germany's main police union, Arnold Plickert, called the New Year's assaults “a massive attack on basic rights.”

“Any refugees who have a problem integrating into our open society and respecting the rights of other people” must be dealt with using the “full force of the law,” Plickert told German press agency DPA.

German MP Steffan Bilger from Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union used the Cologne event to urge the government to change its refugee policy.

“It can’t go on like this,” he tweeted. “Urgently needed: reduction of influx, secure borders, intensifying of deportations and meaningful justice.”

Last Wednesday the Saechsische Zeitung daily reported, citing unpublished official figures, that in 2015 Germany had accommodated nearly 1.1 million refugees, five times more than in 2014.