More than three-quarters of people wanted on arrest warrants in the German state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania are foreign nationals, according to figures released by the state’s left-wing coalition government in response to a parliamentary inquiry from the Alternative for Germany (AfD).
The data showed 1,497 people are currently wanted on arrest warrants in the northeastern German state, of whom 1,134 do not hold German passports. The largest groups are Polish nationals, with 364 cases, followed by Georgians with 107, Romanians with 75, Ukrainians with 68, and Tunisians with 58.
The figures also showed that around 100 foreign nationals are wanted on two arrest warrants, 29 are wanted on three, and six are wanted on more than three.
The imbalance becomes even more striking in cases involving violent crime. Of 83 people wanted on arrest warrants for violent offenses in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, 74 are foreign nationals, amounting to almost 90 percent. The largest groups in this category are Tunisians, with nine cases, Poles with eight, and Moroccans and Russians with five each.
The AfD, which requested the figures, said the data exposed the consequences of failed migration and security policies.
“Foreign criminals contribute significantly to crime in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania,” said Nikolaus Kramer, chairman of the AfD parliamentary group in the state parliament. He argued that a higher propensity for violence, disregard for law and order, and contempt for German society were factors behind the figures.
Kramer also said foreign offenders may have more opportunities to evade law enforcement, either by returning to their countries of origin or disappearing into existing migrant communities in Germany.
The Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania figures follow similar state-level data elsewhere in Germany, showing foreign nationals disproportionately represented in a range of crime categories.
In Bavaria, a report from the state government in response to an inquiry by AfD lawmaker Martin Böhm found that foreign nationals accounted for almost half of all criminal suspects in 2024, despite making up around 18 percent of the state’s population.
The Bavarian data used the suspect burden number, which measures the number of suspects per 100,000 people in a given population group aged eight and over. According to the report, foreign nationals made up 43 percent of suspects in sexual offenses, 49 percent in robbery cases, 47 percent in serious bodily harm and violent crime, and 40 percent in murder and manslaughter cases.
It is important to note that in German crime stats, those who are foreign-born but subsequently naturalized are included as German for these purposes, meaning the number of foreign-born suspects is likely to be far higher.
The report also showed that Turkish, Ukrainian, and Romanian nationals were around four times more likely than Germans to be suspected of violent crimes. However, the Bavarian government did not provide suspect burden figures for several smaller foreign population groups, including Syrians, Afghans, and Iraqis, citing the risk of statistical distortion where the population group was below 100,000.
Public transport crime in Baden-Württemberg has also become a major focus. A response from the state’s Interior Ministry to an AfD inquiry found that 30,950 suspects were recorded for crimes on public transport in 2024, an average of around 85 per day.
🇩🇪‼️ "I will beat you till you die… Look at your pig skin."
A migrant makes sexist, racist, and anti-LGBT remarks against young women in the Berlin train system near the Tempelhof stop. pic.twitter.com/LuJZCcrTsT
— Remix News & Views (@RMXnews) November 19, 2024Of those suspects, 19,138 were non-German nationals, or 62 percent, compared with 11,812 German suspects. The figures did not include immigration offenses, of which there were an additional 20,339 recorded violations. Including those cases, the total number of recorded incidents connected to public transport rose to 51,289.
Foreign nationals also made up a majority of suspects in several specific public transport crime categories in Baden-Württemberg. They accounted for 53 percent of violent crime suspects, 64 percent of theft suspects, 56 percent of drug offense suspects, and 61 percent of weapons offense suspects.
According to Germany’s 2025 police crime statistics, published last week by the Federal Criminal Police Office, the proportion of non-German suspects continued to rise, particularly in serious and violent crime categories.
The data showed foreign nationals were responsible for 41 percent of all violent crimes and 38 percent of murders, despite foreigners making up around 15 percent of the population. They were also listed as suspects in 36 percent of all sexual offenses, rising to 39.1 percent when only rape and sexual assault were counted.
The figures also showed around 29,000 knife-related crimes per year in Germany, equivalent to roughly 80 per day, with knives used in about four in 10 murder and manslaughter cases.
