German Interior Minister Thomas de Maizière: 'Germany remains a safe country'
According to 'Russkaya Germaniya', the total number of violations of the law in the country in 2015 compared to the previous year remained practically unchanged: last year, 5,927,908 offenses and crimes were recorded in Germany, a year earlier – 5,925,668. 'Germany remains a safe country in international comparison,' said Federal Interior Minister Thomas de Maizière at a press conference in Berlin, presenting the police annual report together with the chairman of the conference of state interior ministers, Klaus Bouillon from Saarland.
At the same time, the country is experiencing an unprecedented increase in politically motivated offenses – both from the right and left flanks. The number of recorded violations of the law provoked by political views reached 38,981 in 2015 – a record high since 2001. 22,960 offenses were committed by representatives of right-wing political forces (an increase of 35%), 9,605 were attributed to left-wing extremists (an increase of 18%).
'Such an explosive increase in the number of offenses is an alarming social trend,' the Interior Ministry head stated. Violent political crimes increased by 30% and reached 4,400 – mainly due to bodily harm. But the same section of crime statistics includes 20 attempted political murders committed last year, as well as attacks on housing intended for asylum seekers (1,031 such cases were recorded in 2015 compared to 199 a year earlier). Nine out of ten attacks in 2015 were committed by right-wing extremists. Compared to the total number of politically motivated offenses, among attacks on refugees the proportion of serious crimes is higher: four murders, 60 cases of maiming, 94 arsons, and eight explosions were recorded.
For the first time in the current crime statistics, the Interior Ministry separately accounted for violations of migration law – these include illegal border crossings, manipulation of residence permits, non-compliance with regulations of the foreigners authority, and other similar offenses that German citizens cannot commit. Unsurprisingly, due to the million-strong influx of refugees, the number of such offenses also increased significantly – from 156,396 in 2014 to 402,741 in 2015. If added to the total number of violations of the law, they would noticeably exceed six million – but from Thomas de Maizière's point of view, such a statistical approach distorts the real picture of security in Germany.
The clear-up rate of crimes remains at last year's level and stands at 53.4%. At the same time, it varies significantly depending on the severity of the offense. Thus, in 2015, 94.8% of murders were solved in Germany, but only 14.1% of residential burglaries. The number of home break-ins and thefts increased yet again: 167,136 cases per year – the highest figure since the beginning of this millennium.
Similar high figures were seen at the end of the 1990s. The increase in 2015 reached 9.9%: thus, every three minutes an apartment or house is broken into in Germany. 'It is in the area of residential burglaries that the growing number of offenses committed by organized criminal groups arriving in Germany from Eastern and Southeastern Europe is notable,' notes Thomas de Maizière.
Approximately every third offender in Germany is a foreigner (excluding the separately identified 402,741 offenses in the area of migration law, which are committed only by foreigners). The most common crimes committed by immigrants are theft and fraud.
Albanians top the list of foreign offenders, followed by citizens of Algeria, Serbia, Georgia, and Morocco. Holders of Georgian passports are especially numerous among residential burglars – their number is inversely proportional to the number of Georgian citizens living in Germany. Law enforcement is aware of cases of targeted 'import' of Georgian criminals to Germany 'for work' under the guise of refugees. Only a few Georgians who apply for political asylum receive it, but many, while waiting in vain, manage to work in the country as part of organized gangs carrying out residential burglaries.
In 2015, there were 2,369,036 suspects in Germany (a year earlier – 2,149,504, an increase of 10.2%). A quarter of them are women, three-quarters are men. Foreigners (male and female) make up 38.5% of all offenders (in 2014 it was 28.7%), or 911,864 people in 2015 compared to 617,392 in 2014, an increase of 47.7%.
Nevertheless, the majority of foreigners committing offenses in Germany are people living in the country for the second or even third generation, visiting performers, tourists, business travelers. The share of newly arrived foreigners (read: refugees) among offenders without a German passport is relatively low, at about 6%. Two-thirds of offenses committed by refugees are fare evasion and shoplifting.
The statistical data on the nationality of offenders are incomplete – they were collected in 13 of the 16 federal states (Hamburg, Bremen, and North Rhine-Westphalia did not provide information). In the available data, citizens of Serbia, Kosovo, Nigeria, Macedonia, and Albania significantly predominate, while there are noticeably fewer Syrians, Iraqis, and Afghans among offenders.