MAINZ, Germany – Thousands of right-wing demonstrators poured out their anger at a growing influx of refugees in a weekend of riots in the eastern parts of Germany.
The mayhem began on Friday evening, when protesters attacked a provisional refugee camp and injured 33 police officers deployed to secure the emergency shelter.
About 1,000 demonstrators turned up Friday in the eastern German city of Heidenau, near Dresden, to demonstrate against the arrival of about 600 refugees who fled their war-torn homelands to find shelter in Europe.
On Friday and Saturday nights, far-right protesters clashed with German police and leftist groups, leaving dozens injured.
“Of course I am scared!” said Ayodele Osinara, who fled Nigeria because of Boko Haram, an African terrorist group connected to the so-called Islamic State in Iraq and Syria.
The 28 year-old mother of two added: “I did not came to this country voluntarily. I am not here out of fun and for vacation. I am here, because I had no options left!”
The city of Heidenau is just one of many to line up in a series of right-wing attacks against refugees and immigrants in Germany.
Although many studies show that Germany needs the immigrants to maintain its social system and the national household, many groups oppose the idea of more immigration to Germany.
Many German politicians condemned the actions by the “Sieg-Heil”-chanting neo-Nazis who openly espouse their racist and fascist views.
In April this year a Kurdish student was shot by neo-Nazis in the eastern German town of Leipzig and in July a bomb attack against a pro-immigrant politician was carried out in front of his house in the city of Freital, which received renown as a center of far right activists.
“See, I would love to go back to Afrin,” said Rohan Afrini, who fled Syrian Kurdistan with his wife and three children. “But the political situation doesn’t allow that. I love my homeland and I will go back as soon as possible, but I think these people here don’t understand that. I honestly am afraid that something will happen to my kids.”
Others, like 25-year-old Alan Qaradaxi, said: “I have left my home in the Kurdistan Region because of war and the disputes of our own political parties. Coming to Germany and seeing the same political problems between different political factions makes me lose hope. Neither there nor here are people save from political or racist persecution.”
On social media, some neo-Nazis, like Dennis Muller, proudly posted their photos of two nights of mayhem commented: “Hell of a party! We showed those bastards whose country this is!”
Others, like Jessica Bumb, took their anger out against the many Turks in Germany: “All those Turks have to go out of our country! We don’t want more Turks to come here!”
“I strongly condemn the violence against refugees. German authorities must ensure the safety of the new arrivals. We need a policy and culture of welcome in this country,” said Kahraman Evsen, head of the German-Kurdish Lawyers Association (DKJV).
The young lawyer, who works with the EU-commission, added: “But something has to be done in the refugee’s home countries too. For instance the political parties in both Iraqi and Syrian Kurdistan should put their infighting aside and build up a better functioning administration. The fight against corruption, nepotism and benefits through party membership has to be promoted.”
According to the Iraqi Federation of Refugees, some 300 Kurds leave the country every day. Higher numbers are believed to exit Syria every day, due to the war against ISIS and political tensions in the Kurdish Rojava regions.
Germany is home to about 16.4 million people with a migration background. About a million are Kurds, who mostly arrived during the intense riots and wars in Turkey, Iraq and Iran in the 1980s and 1990s.
According to the Bertelsmann Stiftung, a foundation in Germany, the country needs about a half-million immigrants each year to compensate for the decline of births and to maintain social care.
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