A new report by Germany’s Federal Police indicates that newly arrived Syrian and Afghan migrants without residency status are involved in crime, particularly violent offences and homicides, at disproportionately higher rates than Germans.
However, the report also notes that overall migrant-related crime fell by more than 3 per cent in 2024.
According to Die Welt, part of the decline is attributed to Germany’s legalisation of cannabis. Still, police data show that, relative to their population size, newly arrived migrants remain significantly overrepresented in several crime categories compared with German nationals.
The report states that for violent crime, police registered 163 cases per 100,000 Germans, compared with 1,740 per 100,000 Syrians and 1,722 per 100,000 Afghans.
Of the 3.1 million criminal cases recorded nationwide, 331,308, around 11 per cent, involved at least one suspect classified as a newly arrived migrant. This category covers individuals with unclear residency status and does not include asylum seekers with regular residency, Germans with migration backgrounds, skilled workers, or international students.
The report also found that Afghan and Syrian suspects were overrepresented in cases of sexual offences and drug-related crimes compared with their share of the migrant population. Ukrainian nationals, by contrast, were underrepresented relative to their proportion of new arrivals.
Die Welt reported that Germany’s Interior Minister, Alexander Dobrindt, said migrants who work and obey the law have a right to stay, but those who pose security threats do not. He said Germany would continue efforts to return such individuals to countries including Afghanistan and Syria.
Germany hosts one of the largest Afghan and Syrian refugee populations in Europe.
