Women in Germany at risk from illegal immigration

Women politicians from the Christian Democratic Union party (CDU) are demanding that the federal government stop treating the link between the rise in sexual violence and mass migration as taboo.

Initial reception centre Eisenhüttenstadt Fotó: PATRICK PLEUL

A heated debate has erupted in recent days over mass illegal migration in Germany. Increasingly, politicians from the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) are calling for the Social-democrat-Liberal-Green coalition federal government to tackle migrant crime head-on. Lisa Schafer, a young politician from the Christian Democrats, spoke on a German public media programme about the conditions she experiences on the streets of big cities.

We must finally address the taboo topic: men of migration background are also responsible for the increase in sexual harassment of women,

Ms Schafer said on the television programme. Other CDU politicians then lined up to back the young representative, saying that this serious problem had been systematically hushed up until now.

Former Family Affairs Minister Kristina Schroder told Bild that whatever the phenomenon is officially called, it is nothing more than the phenomenon that  

among young men with a Muslim background, there is often an understanding of masculinity and honor that is also linked to violence. We feel this in the subway stations, in the inner cities and in the playgrounds

Andrea Lindholz, deputy parliamentary group leader, also told Bild that she was very sympathetic to young women's insecurities and fears about such issues, and demanded that the government deal with these cases rather than "re-educating the population". Her party colleague Jana Schimke said,

Women's sense of security has significantly deteriorated due to the uncontrolled migration policy, and this is also supported by crime statistics.

Schimke does not currently recommend that any woman go out to public places alone at night, but also advises women to keep their eyes open during the day when doing sports in parks or in the woods.

Police figures published by the Berlin senate reveal, for example, that since 2020, around 300 cases of gang or group rape have been registered in Germany’s capital. 

Figures also show that more than half of these were committed by people of foreign origin.

However, the actual numbers are most probably much higher, as not all cases come to light. Perpetrators often threaten the victims and their family members that they will be killed if they tell the police.

Marc Vallendar, the MP of the right-wing Alternative for Germany (AfD) party urges the government to introduce a stricter immigration policy. "The continuing rise in sexual offences is a frightening and serious problem. We demand tough punishment and swift deportation for sex offenders," the right-wing politician said in a newspaper interview.

Meanwhile, the main governing party refuses to admit that there is a link between mass illegal migration and the rise in sexual violence, and when asked by journalists they deny that the government's migration policy has anything to do with the change in crime statistics.

 Other countries in Europe are grappling with exactly the same problem. In Italy, for example, 42 per cent of rape suspects are foreign nationals. Data released earlier by Italy’s National Institute for Statistics (ISTAT) show that

male migrants committed 89.7 per cent of crimes involving exploitation of prostitution and 55.8 per cent of cases involving sexual violence.

Similar statistics have been released in recent months in Sweden, the Netherlands, Belgium and France.

Cover photo: Asylum centre in Brandenburg, Germany, 20 October 2021 (Photo: PATRICK PLEUL/ pa-Zentralbild)