Germany’s Migrant Crime Problem Is Out of Control 

In a sane country, it would be unthinkable that the murder of a two-year-old boy would go effectively unpunished. And yet this is exactly what is happening in Germany. In January this year, a 28-year-old Afghan asylum seeker—Enamullah Omarzai—launched a brutal attack on a group of toddlers on a daycare outing, at a park in Aschaffenburg, Bavaria. With a large kitchen knife, he began stabbing two of the children—a two-year-old Moroccan boy and a two-year-old Syrian girl. One of the female teachers, as well as two male passersby, attempted to intervene, allowing the remaining teacher and children to escape. In the struggle, one teacher had her hand broken, while the two men were stabbed. The little boy and a 41-year-old man both died from their injuries. 

Last week, as the trial for this case culminated, Judge Karsten Krebs decided that Omarzai could not be held criminally responsible for his actions. The court-appointed psychiatrist testified that Omarzai was suffering from a severe mental illness, and had heard voices in head that instructed him to attack the children. It was also apparently highly likely that Omarzai would commit more “highly aggressive acts,” if he was not detained in a facility. He had also previously been prescribed medication, which he refused to take, and had repeatedly been released from psychiatric care, apparently because he did not pose any risk to others. 

The details of this case will be grimly familiar. Omarzai arrived in Germany in 2022, after travelling through Bulgaria, Austria, and France. His asylum claim was rejected and he had been under a deportation order since 2024. But, by January this year, he was still in the country. He had also had numerous run-ins with the police, including for assault and property damage. Between the deportation order, the mental-health services, and the interactions with police, there were plenty of opportunities for Omarzai to be kept off the streets. The failure of all these agencies led to the deaths of an innocent child and a man who was simply trying to do the right thing. 

This kind of injustice has become a semi-regular occurrence in Germany. Also last week, Junge Freiheit reported that a 27-year-old Eritrean asylum seeker who went on to attack two women with an iron bollard in Horb am Neckar, Baden-Württemberg, had previous convictions. In 2019, one year after he arrived in Germany, the man was convicted of intentional bodily harm. A year later, he was convicted of two counts of insult, for which he received a fine. He was also apparently well-known to locals in Horb as something of a troublemaker. Despite this, no attempt was ever made to remove him from the country, as these crimes were treated as misdemeanours, not felonies. In fact, the man’s residence permit continued to be extended several times, as recently as April 2025. 

Then, in August, the man assaulted two women in Horb market square in the early hours of the morning. His victims were a 41-year-old woman who worked at a bar the man had previously been banned from, and her 31-year-old companion. The older woman was left with a fractured skull, a brain haemorrhage, and was in a medically induced coma for several days, with a long road to rehabilitation ahead of her. The other suffered a laceration on her forehead and was thankfully able to leave hospital the next day. 

Random attacks by migrants are almost routine now. In March, Dresden was terrorised by a 23-year-old Iraqi man, who allegedly sexually assaulted multiple victims in the space of just a few days. The man, Ismail A., is accused of harassing a woman, grabbing the behind of a 17-year-old girl, and even trying to snatch a backpack from a 10-year-old girl—before allegedly groping her thigh. When in custody, he threatened the interpreter, warning that “I’ll shoot you, I’ll punch you in the pussy, I’ll take you to hell.”

It came to light that A. had initially been granted asylum in Sweden, but decided to try and claim refugee status in Germany, too. German police sent him back to Sweden to have his application processed there, but he illegally returned to Germany just a month later. Here, he was already known to police for a laundry list of previous offences—resisting ticket inspections, sexual harassment, public indecency, defamation, and obtaining services by deception. Yet during A.’s latest trial last week, a judge decided that he should once again go free. Because he has been diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia, A. cannot be held criminally responsible. He will not see the inside of a jail cell, nor even a secure psychiatric facility. Rather, he was handed three days’ worth of anti-psychotic medication and sent on his way. 

This scenario occurs with depressing regularity. A failed asylum seeker, often with previous offences, remains in the country and goes on to commit some crime. The scale of the problem is out of control. Data from last year showed that, despite making up just 15% of the German population, foreign nationals accounted for 35% of sexual-violence offences. Syrians in particular account for a stunning proportion of all crimes. Since 2015, Syrian nationals have committed 135,000 crimes—the equivalent of one crime every 39 minutes.

The political response to this very visible problem has been practically nonexistent. Despite Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s frequent promises to finally do something to tackle illegal migration and crack down on migrant crime, his government has proven time and again that it is unwilling to control the country’s borders. A few weeks ago, Merz admitted that Germany’s urban areas were suffering from high crime rates. While he congratulated his government for coming “very far along” in securing Germany’s borders, he acknowledged that “we still have this problem on our city streets.” This incredibly mild comment sparked outrage not only from opposition, but also from within his coalition. Tim Klüssendorf, general secretary of the Social Democrats (SPD) tut-tutted that Merz’s focus on migration “divides and destroys trust” and that his “expectations of the head of a state are considerably higher.” Worse still, Merz received pushback from within his own party. Dennis Radtke, chairman of the employee wing of the CDU, chastised the chancellor for forgetting that he “is no longer the whimsical commentator on the sidelines who slaps people on the wrist,” and ‘reminding’ him that “he bears a special responsibility for the cohesion of our society, the culture of debate, and a positive narrative for the future.” 

When this is the level of discourse about migration inside the government, what chance does Germany have of making things right? Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul even admitted last weekend that it is unlikely many Syrians will be deported to their homeland, because “it is almost impossible for people to live a dignified life here.” This kind of thinking is exactly the source of Germany’s migration woes. There is ample concern for the ability of Syrians, Afghans, Eritreans and many more to live a “dignified life” on German soil. But what about the Germans already here? Why are they not granted the same right to live in peace, without fear of falling victim to random bouts of crime? 

It should not be difficult for the state to simply enforce laws. If an asylum seeker’s application has failed, they should be deported—not allowed to roam around the country for years. And if a migrant commits a crime, they should not be able to stay in the country. Protecting the public must always come first, not some vague notions of ‘human rights.’ And laws should not be treated as optional. A state that cannot protect its citizens—especially its children—has failed its basic duty of care.