News / Germany

German slams ‘shameful’ attacks on refugees in Saxony

Tuesday, 23 February 2016 11:33 AM [ Last Update: Tuesday, 23 February 2016 11:32 AM ]

German government spokesman Steffen Seibert

Germany has condemned a recent xenophobic assault on a refugee bus in the eastern state of Saxony, saying the attempt to prevent refugees from entering a shelter is “deeply shameful.”

“How cold-hearted, how cowardly one has to be to plant oneself in front of a refugee bus, to swear and to roar in order to scare the people sitting inside, among them several women and children,” government spokesman Steffen Seibert said.

He said many people in Saxony care for refugees in “a decent, compassionate manner,” adding that “it would be completely wrong to now draw conclusions on an entire region from incidents like in Clausnitz.”

On Thursday, about 100 people blocked the bus transporting refugees to a shelter in Clausnitz, a small town about 40 km (24.8 miles) from Dresden, yelling “Get lost”, “Stop crying and go home if you don’t like it here” and “Pull them out.”

Video footage posted online showed the crowd surrounding the bus, chanting slurs and hindering the refugees from getting off. Several women and two minors on the bus can be seen crying and hugging each other in fear.

A German police officer is seen in a video forcibly dragging a young refugee boy off the bus and into the housing, sparking widespread criticism of police abuses against the asylum seekers.

Saxony’s Interior Minister Markus Ulbig also condemned the protesters on Friday, saying it was “deeply shameful the way people were being treated.”

Meanwhile, German authorities are concerned about rising xenophobic sentiments in the former communist eastern part of the country.

A total of 231 extreme-right attacks were recorded across Germany between January 1 and February 20 this year, and 47 of them took place in the state of Saxony, according to an independent count by non-government groups the Amadeu-Antonio Foundation and Pro Asyl.

A photo taken from the Macedonian side of the border shows refugees protesting behind a fence and barbed wire at the Greek-Macedonian border on February 22, 2016. ©AFP

Europe is facing an unprecedented influx of refugees who are fleeing conflict-ridden zones in Africa and the Middle East, particularly Syria.

Some 1.1 million refugees were registered in Germany between January and December 2015.

Many blame major European powers for the unprecedented exodus, saying their policies have led to a surge in terrorism and war in those regions, forcing more people to flee their homes.

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