One small German city has started turning away new refugees amid an explosion of violence between the newcomers and a burgeoning (and illegal) neo-Nazi group that has taken root in the city.
Officials in the city of Cottbus – located about 120 kilometers (about 75 miles) – has been plagued by a surge of attacks from refugees and right-wing extremists since the beginning of the year.
According to Fox News, Brandenburg state police said two Syrian teenage boys were arrested under the suspicion of injuring a German teenager in the face with a knife last week.
The 16-year-old reportedly sustained injuries that were not life-threatening during a fight between Syrian and German schoolmates.
Days before the fight, a group of three Syrian asylum-seekers, aged 14, 15 and 17, attacked a51-year-old man and his wife outside a shopping center.
Officials handed the 15-year-old a “negative residency permit” effectively ordering him and his father to leave the city, Fox News reported.
The small university town – which has about 100,000 German residents – has taken in about 3,000 asylum-seekers sine German Chancellor Angela Merkel opened Germany’s doors to migrants in 2015.
Last weekend, around 100 masked neo-Nazis took part in an illegal demonstration when they marched through the city’s center, the Daily Mail reported.
Brandenburg Interior Minister Karl-Heinz Schroeter told the Mail that the ban on new refugees would be in effect ‘for the next few months’.
Cottbus will also implement safety measures including increased video surveillance, a larger presence of police officers and 10 new social worker positions throughout local schools, officials said.
A few weeks ago, a study published by a German criminologist found that the influx of mostly young, male migrants had led to an increase in violent crime.