Refugees attacked by mob in Cologne

Müller’s words follow New Year’s Eve’s dozens of violent and sexual attacks targeting women in Cologne, German, which were reportedly launched by Syrian and Pakistani refugees in the country who had been granted legal asylum.

The six Pakistani nationals were attacked Sunday by around 20 people, and two of them were briefly admitted to a hospital, police said. Also Sunday evening, a Syrian man was attacked by five people.

German leader Angela Merkel’s open-door policy and slogan “We Can Do It” accompanied the arrival of some 1.1 million people into the country past year – including many Syrians fleeing war in the homeland. “Such offenders should be deported”, she said, backing a similar suggestion by Merkel.

Police officer Norbert Wagner told a news conference that rocker and hooligan gangs had published an appeal on the Internet on Sunday to join them in “violence-free strolls” through Cologne, when in fact they were prowling for foreigners.

To make matters worse, the Germans found out both their media and police were complicit in the coverup after being ordered by Merkel’s people in power to look the other way and not report on what goes on in the country. Incidents also were reported in Sweden and Finland.

Over 500 criminal complaints – about 40 percent of which involve allegations of sexual assault – have been filed to the German police regarding attacks that took place in the square outside Cologne’s main train station on Monday night according to BBC.

Swedish police were also criticised on Monday after admitting they failed to release information about alleged sexual assaults against women by young immigrants at a Stockholm summer music festival over the past two years. They shot fireworks into the crowd and at police, and groups within the crowd were sexually harassing women and stealing from them as they came out of the station.

“Cologne police should have reacted to developments and drawn on additional available reinforcements on New Year’s Eve“, said Ralf Jäger, interior minister in North Rhine-Westphalia.

Dubbed “a new dimension of crime” by German authorities, the Cologne violence revealed local police were caught unawares by the events.

He was initially identified by police as Sallah Ali from Morocco, but officially he is registered as 18-year-old Walid Sahili seeking asylum in Germany. She spoke with Ahmad in November, when she and a colleague Kavitha Surana were reporting from Berlin on asylum seekers navigating the German bureaucracy.

The Cologne chief of police, Wolfgang Albers, lost his job over the controversy.

Still, there is no clear link between the New Year’s Eve assaults and refugees.