❓WHAT HAPPENED: The federal government in Germany has revealed that over 135,000 crimes were committed by Syrian suspects between 2015 and 2024, averaging one every 39 minutes.
👤WHO WAS INVOLVED: The Federal Ministry of the Interior, Alternative for Germany (AfD) co-leader Alice Weidel, AfD Bundestag (federal parliament) member Christopher Drößler, and other political figures.
📍WHEN & WHERE: Germany, between 2015 and 2024, with data released in response to a parliamentary inquiry.
💬KEY QUOTE: “This development is not only extremely alarming but also the result of government mismanagement and uncorrected political misjudgments.” – Alice Weidel
🎯IMPACT: The figures have reignited calls for stricter migration controls, large-scale deportations, and increased border security in Germany.
Newly released government statistics have ignited fierce debate over immigration policy in Germany, revealing that suspects of Syrian origin were linked to 135,668 crimes between 2015 and 2024, one every 39 minutes on average. The figures were disclosed by the Federal Ministry of the Interior in response to a parliamentary query from the populist, anti-mass migration Alternative for Germany (AfD) party. The data has prompted renewed demands for stricter border controls and mass deportations, as critics decry migrants’ toll on public safety.
The report also tallies significant offenses tied to other nationalities: 82,960 from Afghanistan, 69,946 from Iraq, 39,918 from Morocco, and 32,383 from Algeria. In total, suspects from the top 10 countries of origin accounted for more than 460,000 violations over the decade.
AfD co-leader Alice Weidel seized on the numbers to blast the coalition government. “More than half of all women in Germany no longer feel safe in public spaces. This alarming figure is further proof of the government’s failure. Between 2015 and 2024, 135,668 Germans were victims of crimes committed by suspected Syrian perpetrators. This development is not only extremely alarming but also the result of government mismanagement and uncorrected political misjudgments,” she said.
Christopher Drößler, the AfD Bundestag (federal parliament) member who initiated the inquiry, echoed the sentiment and pushed for aggressive action. “Numbers don’t lie. The statistics confirm once again: Germans are primarily victims of criminal foreigners from [Middle] Eastern countries,” he said. Drößler advocated for enabling deportations to Syria, Afghanistan, Morocco, and Iraq, stressing the AfD as the only party with “clear solutions” like fortified borders, swift deportations of criminal migrants, and more police resources.
The controversy unfolds against a backdrop of explosive growth in Germany’s Syrian community. By late 2023, their numbers had ballooned to at least 972,000, a 16-fold increase from 60,000 in 2014. Overall, around one in 20 Syrians now live in Germany. Of these, over half, or more than 513,000, depend on welfare benefits such as Bürgergeld, with migrants comprising nearly half of all recipients. Foreigner-related expenditures reached €50 billion in 2023 alone, part of a €145 billion total since 2010. Studies show elevated violent crime rates among groups like Syrians and Afghans compared to native Germans.
High-profile offenses have heightened fears about migrant crime. On October 28, 2025, for instance, four Syrian teenagers and a 22-year-old Iraqi woman were arrested in Hamburg for allegedly throwing a 15-year-old Iraqi boy to his death from an eighth-floor apartment. Earlier in October, prosecutors in Heinsberg charged five Syrian men, adults and juveniles, with gang-raping a 17-year-old girl. These cases underscore the raw nerves exposed by the data, as the AfD leverages them to challenge the status quo on migration and security.
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