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Only 4 convictions in 222 attacks on refugees in Germany: Report

File photo of a refugee shelter in Weissach, Germany burning down after an arson attack in August 2015.

Most of the violent attacks against refugee shelters in Germany are not prosecuted or even probed, with reports of only four convictions out of 222 recorded cases, a local daily reveals.

German newspaper Die Zeit  released the alarming report on Friday, pointing to the steadily rising violence against shelters for asylum seekers in the country with hundreds of recorded attacks that range from throwing stones to tossing Molotov cocktails and launching arson attacks.

Only a small number of such criminal assaults are probed by German law enforcement agencies, and even fewer cases are referred to legal courts.

The key finding of the daily’s investigative team states that all the incidents that have occurred so far this year involved human injuries or the risk of injuries. Out of all the 222 documented cases, there were 93 arson attacks against refugee hostels with people inside.

An African refugee was found dead by fire fighter in this arson fire that occurred at an asylum center in eastern German city of Saalfeld in October 2015.

This is while there were only eight cases in which charges were filed against perpetrators with merely four of them being convicted by the courts despite the fact that 104 people have been injured by such attacks, the report stated insisting that no fatalities occurred “only by chance.”

The daily further revealed that the number of arson attacks on refugee shelters had drastically surged by October 2015, with most of the cases taking place in the state of Saxony which lies in eastern Germany.

Such figures, however, have resulted in enhanced police measures to either prevent or effectively probe the attacks, the report found, underlining that most of the offenses occur at night and in remote areas where refugee homes are established.

Europe continues to struggle with a major refuges crisis dubbed the worst since the World War II. Latest figures indicate that Germany alone has received nearly 800,000 asylum applications in 2015 so far with comparable numbers expected next year. 


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