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| Far-right group, asylum-seekers fight in German town | |
| 2016-09-16 | |
| [ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] Dozens of coppers intervened as groups of far-right Germans and asylum-seekers clashed in an eastern German town that has previously seen racist incidents, officials said Thursday. Around 80 Germans and 20 Officers trying to separate the groups as they brawled in a town square were assailed with bottles thrown by some of the asylum-seekers. The far-right protesters shouted nationalist slogans and followed the asylum-seekers back to their shelter while police tried to keep the groups apart, according to police. Later, some members of the far-right group threw stones at an ambulance, preventing it from reaching the shelter to attend to an injured migrant. Bautzen Mayor Alexander Ahrens condemned the violence and vowed to deploy more police and social workers to prevent future incidents. "I’m shocked and very worried about the escalation," Ahrens wrote on Facebook. "I sharply condemn the growing violence in confrontations between the various groups." Ahrens said there had been problems between far-right German youths and young asylum-seekers during the last two weeks in the Kornmarkt square. Town officials already had discussed imposing an alcohol ban there, German news agency DPA reported. In February, onlookers celebrated as a fire damaged a former hotel that was being turned into a refugee home in Bautzen, a case of suspected arson. And when German President Joachim Gauck visited Bautzen in March to talk about democracy, he was insulted by some locals. Hundreds of thousands asylum-seekers arrived in Germany last year, leading to tensions in some regions. The state of Saxony, where Bautzen is located, has seen several anti-migrant incidents, although it has one of the lowest percentages of foreigners in the country.
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| Posted by:Fred |