Germany: Rate of crimes committed by migrants sinks

According to Germany's federal criminal police, the share of immigrants among all criminal suspects has declined for the third year in a row. However, there are major differences between nationalities.

One in 14 criminal offenses in Germany last year were committed by immigrants. That's according to the Bundeskriminalamt (Federal Criminal Police Office), which published its annual 'crime in the context of immigration' report last week.

The Bundeskriminalamt (BKA) said it registered a total of some 1.78 million alleged criminals in 2021. Of those, 7.1% were immigrants as defined by the BKA statistic: asylum seekers, recognized refugees, people with a tolerated stay ('Duldung') and those staying in Germany illegally ('unerlaubter Aufenthalt').

The share of immigrants among all criminal suspects has declined for the third year in a row, down from 8.6% in 2018. In 2014, the first available year on the BKA website, it stood at 3%.

According to the BKA statistics, 5.2% of all victims of criminal offenses last year were immigrants, down from 5.7% in 2020. Three out of four immigrants last year were victims of bodily harm.

Syrians, Afghans and Iraqis underrepresented

According to the BKA report, immigrants from Syria, Afghanistan and Iraq -- the three main countries of origin for migrants in Germany -- committed far fewer criminal offenses than immigrants from other countries.

While roughly one in three of all immigrants in Germany were Syrian, according to BKA data, only around one in five of all criminal suspects among immigrants were Syrian. Immigrants from countries including Nigeria, Algeria, Morocco, Georgia and Tunisia, on the other hand, were overrepresented, compared to their numbers in the population.

Against this backdrop, the conservative Union party called on the ruling government coalition to consider the Maghreb countries and Georgia as 'safe countries' of origin. In 2019, the Federal Council (Bundesrat), or upper house of parliament, shut down such an endeavor by the old government.

Alexander Throm, a member of Parliament for the conservative CDU/CSU fraction, said such a step would accelerate the asylum processes and "send a signal" to those countries that emigrating to seek asylum in Germany "doesn't make sense."

According to BAMF, Germany currently considers the Member States of the European Union, Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Ghana, Kosovo, North Macedonia, Montenegro, Senegal and Serbia to be safe countries of origin.