Gang rapes: Number of foreign suspects in Germany increasing

The number rose again in 2018 due to a change in the counting method in police crime statistics (PKS).

As can be seen from a response from the Federal Government to a question from the AfD parliamentary group in the Bundestag, the PKS lists a total of 450 people for 2014 who had been charged with the crime of gang rape.

Some 158 of them (35,1 percent) were not German. A possible immigration background was not recorded, however. Suspects with foreign roots and a German passport count as Germans in the official statistics, suggesting that the number may even be higher.

The Federal Government lists 360 suspects in 2015, including 166 foreigners (46,1 percent), 407 in 2016, including 218 suspected non-German perpetrators (53,6 percent) and 385 suspects in the following year. Here too, the proportion of 201 foreign suspects (52,2 percent) was more than half.

Since 2018, the PKS has differentiated between rape with “suspects who do not act alone” and “rape of an incapable person” by several suspects. A total of 302 such group rapes were counted in the year, including 19 attempts.

Some 162 “suspects” were recorded in “rape of an incapable person”, of which 71 were not German (43,8 percent). The authorities registered 492 suspects in the remaining group rapes, including 257 foreigners (52,2 percent).

Of these, the largest group (37) came from Turkey, followed by Afghanistan (25) and Syria (24). Of the 71 foreign suspects suspected of raping a resilient person, Afghans led the list with 17 suspected perpetrators, followed by Syrians with 15 suspects.

The Munich police meanwhile arrested an Afghan for sexual assault this week. According to the police report, the 26-year-old man had been caught after a search lasting several days after attacking a woman.

Already on January 5, the non-resident alien followed a 25-year-old to the toilet of a fast food restaurant at Munich’s Stachus. There he pushed her into a toilet cabin, partially undressed her while indecently assaulting her. Because of the screams of the woman, he ran away.

The police were able to determine the identity of the Afghan through an investigation. Officials arrested him at an S-Bahn station last Thursday.

Witnesses had alarmed the security forces because the suspect had previously slapped a 19-year-old in the face several times. While checking his personal details, the police found that it was the person they were looking for.

In 2018, the Wall Street Journal analyzed German crime statistics for crime suspects and found that the foreigners, overall 12,8 percent of the population, make up a disproportionate share of crime suspects (34,7 percent).

In 2016, 31,4 percent of all convicted offenders were foreigners, about 3 times higher than the percentage of foreigners living in Germany.

According to the Huntington Post in February 2018, out of each of the 15 state justice ministries, 12 300 Muslims are in prison. This constitutes about 20 percent of the 65 000 prison population in Germany, proving to be an over-representation.

In 2018, the interior ministry published an analysis of the Federal Police Statistic (PKS) for the first time, which included all the people who came via the asylum system into Germany.

The report found that the group defined as immigrants, which constitutes 2 percent of the total population, makes up 8,5 percent of all crime suspects.

Other crimes such as drug trafficking, weapon trafficking, extortion, prostitution, money laundering and contract killing are also mostly perpetrated by foreigners in the urban centres of Berlin, Frankfurt or Hamburg.

Moreover, more and more Germans are leaving the country. According to the Federal Government’s 2018 Migration Report, around 295 000 more Germans emigrated between 2016 and 2018 than came back .

Accordingly, the number of emigrants has exceeded that of returnees since 1993. Taking into account the late repatriates, the migration balance was still positive until 2004.

The situation is different with the immigration balance of foreigners. In 2018, 460 000 more foreigners immigrated than emigrated. In 2017, 498 558 more foreigners immigrated than emigrated. In 2016 this figure was 635 308 people, in 2015 it was 1 156 962.

While the migration balance was positive in almost all countries of origin and destination, only more Austrians and Swiss returned to their home country than new immigrants.

Accordingly, the number of Germans of origin decreases from year to year. In 2005 there were 66,4 million. In 2018, 60,8 million people without a migration background still lived in the Federal Republic.

The age structure is particularly striking. In 2018, almost 5,6 million Germans without a migration background were registered among the group of 50-55 year olds. Those aged 25-30 years were 3,4 million and the 0-5 year-old persons were 2,2 million.

According to the study, the slight increase in the birth rate that has been observed since 2015 is also due to babies without German citizenship. Of the approximately 788 000 newborns, 683 000 were German and almost 105 000 were foreign nationals last year.