Over the past twelve months, Ukrainian refugees in Berlin have repeatedly become victims of theft, attacks and other criminal acts. From the start of the war at the end of February 2022 to February this year, the police registered 3,250 crimes in which at least one person from Ukraine was harmed.
This emerges from a response from the Senate and the police to a request from the Green MP Vasili Franco, which the dpa has received. The police could not say whether the crimes included many politically motivated crimes related to Russia’s war against Ukraine.
The high number of crimes was particularly striking in the districts of Mitte (640) and Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf (484). In the other districts there were significantly fewer. Thefts in particular were frequent (1294), then bodily harm (704), fraud (301), threats (234) and insults (117). The police identified a suspect or alleged perpetrator for around 1,200 of the 3,250 crimes recorded. These often involved bodily harm (575), threats (187) and insults (86).
The Greens domestic politician Franco emphasized that Ukrainian refugees repeatedly report verbal and physical assaults because of their nationality or language. The available figures therefore also confirm corresponding warnings from Ukrainian organizations.
The rate of assaults against Ukrainians is more than two and a half times higher than the rate in the general population, Franco said. The proportion of threats is also well above average. A possible explanation could be “higher levels of hate crime”.
The police were asked to clarify this. The fact that the political motivation of the suspects is unknown “is more than regrettable,” said Franco. Another problem is that so far only 23 investigations have led to charges in court. (dpa)
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