Rights activists urge Germany to do more to combat far-right crimes

BERLIN

Germany needs to step up its efforts to combat far-right violence as 41% of last year’s victims of politically motivated crimes were attacked by right-wing extremists, human rights activists in the capital Berlin told Anadolu Agency.

“We are very concerned about right-wing violence in Germany. We saw five murders last year. People who were killed because of right-wing violence,” Robert Kusche of the Berlin-based Association of Counseling Centers for Victims of Right-wing, Racist and Antisemitic Violence in Germany (VBRG).

“We can totally understand that the migrant community is afraid and we totally support them in the way that we are saying the German government must do more. I can totally understand these concerns because we saw in the last three years 17 murders because of racism and anti-Semitism,” he added.

Kusche stressed that while progress has been made in the fight against far-right violence, much more needs to be done.

“We are already seeing some improvements under the new German government. There is a 10-point (action) plan by the German Interior Minister (Nancy Faeser), he said.

“There are a lot of things going on but we also know that often the political process needs time," Kusche said.

"I can understand that people who are the victims or people who are afraid that they may become the next victims because they are migrants that they say you really have to speed up things to improve the situation by combating racism,” he added.

Kusche’s remarks were echoed by Said Etris Hashemi, another human rights activist whose brother was killed in a right-wing shooting massacre in the southern German city of Hanau in February 2019.

“I am very concerned about right-wing violence, especially when you see all right-wing crimes in Germany. We are seeing an enormous increase in right-wing violence and it is time now to act against this,” Hashemi said.

“It is good and correct that the federal (German) government has finally accepted that right-wing extremism is the biggest security loophole in our system and now is the time to address this,” he added.

According to the German interior minister, the far-right is “the biggest threat to democracy” in the country.

Neo-Nazis and right-wing extremists committed 21,964 crimes in Germany last year, the government reported on Tuesday.

Based on the report, neo-Nazis and right-wing extremists carried out 1,042 violent attacks last year targeting migrants, refugees or political opponents. At least 590 people were injured in those attacks.