German neo-Nazi protesters clash with

police at new migrant shelter

Two consecutive nights of violence force police to seal off shelter near
Dresden as Germany prepares for biggest influx of asylum seekers since
second world war

Neo-Nazi protesters clash with police near a new shelter for migrants in Heidenau. Photograph: Matthias
Rietschel/Getty Images

Kate Connolly in Berlin-Sunday 23 August 2015

Neo-Nazi protesters gathered to demonstrate against the arrival of migrants

at a newly opened shelter in eastern Germany have clashed violently with
police in a sign of growing tension over the record influx of asylum seekers
expected this year.
The two consecutive nights of violence over the weekend came at the end
of a week in which the interior minister, Thomas de Maizire, said Germany
could expect to receive as many as 800,000 asylum seekers in 2015, the
biggest influx since the second world war.
On Sunday, Angela Merkels deputy, Sigmar Gabriel, called the issue

Germanys biggest challenge since reunification 25 years ago.

Police in the town of Heidenau, near Dresden, were forced to seal off the
shelter, which has been set up in a disused DIY store, as demonstrators
hurled abuse at arriving migrants and bombarded police with stones,
bottles and firecrackers.
Police responded by firing teargas and pepper spray in an effort to secure
the entrance road to the shelter, which has been built to accommodate 600
people. Thirty-one officers were injured, a spokesman said.
Saxonys interior minister, Markus Ulbig, was quick to issue a
condemnation, telling German media on Sunday: This renewed excessive
violence is outrageous and unacceptable.
He said police would be better able to spot potential violent criminals by
erecting a security barrier around the shelter and asking everyone who
approached to identify themselves.
De Maizire said perpetrators of racist violence would feel the full strength
of the law. Jrgen Opitz, the mayor of Heidenau, urged the towns 16,000
residents to show solidarity towards the migrants.

Asylum seekers stand on the steps of the new shelter in Heidenau, set up in
a disused DIY store. Photograph: Matthias Rietschel/Getty Images
Humanity is required. No one is being asked to sacrifice anything, he said,
adding that Saxony was in a strong position to help the large numbers of
migrants coming to Germany and Heidenau was fully behind the effort.
The confrontations add to the record number of reported attacks on asylum
seekers homes this year, which was already more than twice as high as in
2014 by the end of June. Police say the real number of attacks is probably
much higher.
Most of the hostility is in towns and villages in the former communist east, a
fact that is casting a huge shadow over the region in the runup to the 25th
anniversary of German reunification in October.
Far-right groups across Germany have been encouraging people to report
the whereabouts of every new home under their no refugee camps in my
neighbourhood campaign. Last month, Google responded to the protests
and deleted a map run by the campaign group which detailed their location
in what amounted to an open invitation to attack them.
Some shelters, such as the one in Freital, Saxony, have been subject to
arson attacks and a barrage of abuse by far-right protesters gathered
outside.
Polls show that 58% of Germans support the number of migrants coming to
Germany and believe the country has the resources to cope. That image is
reinforced by volunteers who have come out in unprecedented numbers
across the country to help feed and shelter the newcomers.
Migrants are being housed in everything from tents in makeshift camps and
metal containers to schools empty over the summer holidays. With term
due to start soon, however, a frantic effort is on to find more suitable longterm accommodation.
On Sunday, the Social Democrat prime minister of the state of North RhineWestphalia, Hannelore Kraft joined in increasing calls for an EU-wide asylum

policy, arguing that many countries were failing to contribute enough to the
crisis. The government has already warned that border controls may have
to be introduced if a distribution system is not introduced.
When North Rhine-Westphalia is taking in more refugees than France, then
something is not quite right, Kraft told Deutschlandfunk radio.
She said she believed the number of asylum seekers expected this year
may well be much higher than the 800,000 estimated De Maizire. She also
urged the federal government to cut the average time of seven months it
currently takes to process asylum applications.
De Maizire announced this weekend that thousands of civil servants were
being brought out of retirement to help speed up the process and an appeal
has also gone out for others to delay their retirement.
Gabriel and Frank-Walter Steinmeier, the heads of the Social Democrats,
who are junior partners in the governing coalition, also back the idea of an
EU-wide policy. They have released a paper on the crisis in which they say
the reaction until now of many EU members does not match the
aspirations that Europe should have of itself.
They say Europe is facing a challenge that would affect generations and
which requires the introduction of a fair system of distribution of migrants
across the EU.
Some argue for a similar system to that currently in place in Germany,
under which migrants are distributed across the country according to the
size of a regions population and its tax revenues per head.
As calls from across the political spectrum for Merkels government to
finally introduce an immigration law grow louder, industry bosses have
begun to wade into the debate.
The head of the chemicals company Evonik, Klaus Engel, has said that, at a
time when Germany is crying out for skilled workers, asylum seekers whose
applications have been turned down should have the chance to prove
whether they have skills to offer before being sent home.

No one is checking the refugees qualifications and capabilities in order to

establish whether they are able to enrich our country. That is just wrong,
Engel wrote in a commentary for the Bild am Sonntag. He criticised the fact
that applying for asylum was currently the only way in which people who
wanted to come to Germany and find work had any chance of getting in.
Because we have no proper immigration law, people are forced to apply for
asylum, he said, comparing the process to getting through the eye of a
needle.
Demographic experts have said that in order to have any chance of
plugging the huge imbalance between births and deaths, Germany, which
currently has the lowest birthrate in the world, needs to welcome about
533,000 immigrants every year.
A recent poll showed that 76% of Germans are in favour of an immigration
law.
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