Nearly 10 attacks were made on refugees and asylum seekers in Germany every day in 2016, the interior ministry data showed. The country had witnessed more than 3,500 attacks against migrants last year.
The assaults left 560 people injured, including 43 children, the ministry said in a written response to a parliamentary question seen by AFP on Sunday.
A total of 2,545 attacks against individual refugees were reported last year, the ministry wrote, citing police statistics.
Additionally, there were 988 instances of housing for refugees and asylum seekers being targeted last year, the ministry said, including arson attacks.
The sharp rise in hate crimes came after the country took in about 890,000 asylum seekers in 2015. Chancellor Angela Merkel’s decision has boosted the hate crime and increased the support for the Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, a rightwing organisation.
Ulla Jelpke, an MP from the leftist Die Linke party, told media that the government was too focused on a perceived security threat from migrants while the real threat was coming from the far right.
Do people have to die before the rightwing violence is considered a central domestic security problem and makes it to the top of the national policy agenda?” she was quoted by the Funke media group as saying.
