An increasing migrant population has contributed significantly to a spike in crime across the German state of Bavaria, the state’s Interior Minister Joachim Herrmann claimed on Monday.
Speaking after his ministry’s publication of the state police’s crime stats for last year, the CSU politician assured the public that Bavaria remains a particularly safe area of the country, but bemoaned the fact that crime had increased across the state and attributed much of this increase to foreign nationals.
“We will not accept the increase in crime, even if it is a nationwide trend for which foreigners and immigrants are particularly responsible,” Herrmann said in a press release on Monday.
“We have commissioned the State Criminal Police Office and our police headquarters to analyze crime developments in detail in order to adapt operational concepts and police presence if necessary,” he added.
According to the crime stats, a total of 39.6 percent of the 266,390 suspects in crimes across the state last year were non-Germans despite only comprising 16 percent of the state’s population. This corresponds to an increase of 20.5 percent compared to 2022 when 32,037 immigrants were suspected of criminal offenses.
A further dive into the figures shows thefts are up 10.5 percent, burglaries are up 20.8 percent, and assaults have increased by 6.6 percent.
At a total of 16,438 cases, sexual assaults are up 2.6 percent, with child pornography offenses soaring by 14.6 percent.
Offenses committed within the vicinity of asylum seeker accommodations have risen by 21.9 percent over 2022 to 6,943. The most common crimes in these facilities were “brutality offenses,” physical attacks on state authorities, and drug-related offenses.
“The crime statistics make it clear that uncontrolled immigration also has a negative impact on the security situation,” Herrmann said.
“It is particularly important to take those foreigners who pose a threat to public safety out of the country as quickly as possible after serving their sentence. In addition, we finally need a fundamental change of course in asylum policy and, above all, an effective containment of illegal migration,” he added.
The Bavarian interior minister called on the federal government to start turning away illegal migrants at the German border “even if they apply for asylum,” and vowed to ensure the state’s internal borders were “effectively controlled,” announcing an increase in Bavarian border police personnel to 1,500 staff by 2028.
“We will fight not only illegal migration and smugglers, but all cross-border crime more intensively,” he concluded.
