The number of offenses committed by foreigners in Germany in 2015 increased by over 2.5 times in a year amid the migrant crisis, German Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere said Monday.
BERLIN (Sputnik) — According to a police criminal statistics report, a total of 402,741 offenses by foreigners were recorded in 2015, while in 2014 the number amounted to 156,396.
“A large influx of people, who arrived in Germany as refugees in 2015, has been reflected in the police criminal statistics,” de Maiziere told journalists, presenting the report.
It is the first time when offenses committed by foreigners were counted separately for the overall number of offenses in the country.”Considering this, the total number of crimes in 2015 is at about the same level as last year,” he noted, adding that the number of crimes, not considering those committed by foreigners, was 5.927 million in 2015 and 5.925 million in 2014. The overall number of offenses amounted to 6.330 million, comparing to 6.082 million in 2014.
De Maiziere stressed that not only refugees but also tourists were considered as “foreigners” in the statistics.