Migrant Rape Crisis: Mass New Year’s Assaults Across European Cities Fueling Migrant Debate
A migrant rape crisis could be brewing in Europe after groups of Middle-Eastern men were accused of committing mass assaults during New Year celebrations across a number of cities, sparking protests and calls for an end to policies accepting these migrants.
This week, allegations surfaced that groups of men in Cologne assaulted close to 100 women, who said they were molested and robbed during New Year’s Eve in the city. One woman reported that she was raped. Police have identified a handful of suspects, though there have not yet been arrests.
A German police report detailed the chaos.
“When we arrived, our vehicles were pelted with firecrackers,” the report read (via Russia Today). “In the forecourt and on the cathedral steps were a thousand people, mostly males of an immigrant background who were indiscriminately throwing fireworks and bottles into the crowd.”
While reports of the sex assaults in Cologne intensify, strikingly similar reports are coming out of other cities across Europe. Women in other German cities — including Berlin, Hamburg, and Stuttgart — have also reported sexual assault.
In Frankfurt, seven women reported being assaulted by men with north African appearance and strong Arabic accents, The Local reported.
Women forced to run through mobs of drunken men in NYE Cologne attacks, police report says https://t.co/a41BYbCahe pic.twitter.com/DuftSoQCRa
— Sky News (@SkyNews) January 8, 2016
Syrian Migrants In #Cologne Tell German Police They’re Above The Law https://t.co/T97O9f1WMK #Refugees pic.twitter.com/3q0fgbOxKR
— The Daily Caller (@DailyCaller) January 8, 2016
“We didn’t know of the phenomenon, where groups of men severely sexual molest women, until now,” a police spokesperson said.
The assaults have fueled the already raging debate over Europe’s migrant policies. Germany is one of the most open nations, taking in close to one million migrants displaced by war in Syria and other areas of the Middle East.
The reports have added fuel to the debate over whether taking in these migrants is appropriate. Police reports noted that some of the alleged attackers taunted police officers, tearing up residence permits in front of police and telling them: “You can’t touch me. I’ll just go back tomorrow and get a new one.”
The report noted that another man taunted police, telling them: “I’m a Syrian! You have to treat me kindly! [Chancellor Angela] Merkel invited me.”
Even German officials were at a loss for the mass violence and sexual assault.
“What took place that night has never happened in such a form before,” German Justice Minister Heiko Maas said Tuesday. “It’s a new dimension we will have to deal with.”
Many conservative voices have been warning of the dangers that come with the influx of migrants, especially those from war-torn countries.
In October, Anne-Marie Waters wrote an article for the right-leaning site Breitbart titled, “Europe’s Rape Epidemic: Western Women Will Be Sacrificed At The Altar Of Mass Migration.” In it, Waters warned that in England, “tens of thousands of young British girls are brutalised, tortured, beaten and raped by organised gangs comprised almost exclusively of Muslims.”
She continued:
“Rape and sexual assault (as well as forced prostitution) is rampant within the refugee camps in Germany, and it has spilled out to the nearby towns. Rape in Germany has already been described as an ‘epidemic’ and one that the German authorities, and media, are keeping rather quiet about. The reality is that German authorities, who know that many of these asylum seekers are rapists, will allow those men to live freely among German women – they have decided to allow German women to be raped, just like authorities all across Europe.”
Even before police identified the alleged attackers in Cologne, many pounced on migrants, the Wall Street Journal noted.
Police said they had no indication that the presumed perpetrators were refugees or recently arrived migrants, but conservative and right-wing politicians were quick to blame the New Year’s Eve attacks on Chancellor Angela Merkel‘s open-arms policy toward migrants.
The violence is “the consequence of an uncontrolled migration,” Frauke Petry, head of the extreme right party Alternative for Germany, told a Cologne newspaper.
While anger simmers over the alleged sexual assaults committed by migrants, German officials and Chancellor Angela Merkel vowed to track down the attackers and bring them to justice, “regardless of their origin or background.”
[Picture by Sascha Schuermann/Getty Images]
