Germany Says Asylum Seekers Among Cologne Assault Suspects

Germany’s interior ministry says 18 asylum-seekers were among the suspects in a spate of thefts and sexual assaults on women in Cologne on New Year’s Eve.

Chancellor Angela Merkel’s party on Saturday proposed stricter laws regulating asylum seekers after a string of New Year’s Eve sexual assaults and robberies in Cologne blamed largely on foreigners.

German authorities have identified 18 asylum-seekers among the 31 suspects linked to assaults in Cologne on New Year’s Eve.

Three crimes were related to sexual assaults, the ministry spokesman said, but added that police had not yet identified suspects in the specific cases. The 31 included nine Algerians, eight Moroccans, five Iranians, four Syrians, two Germans and one person each from Iraq, Serbia and the United States.

The police chief has been accused of holding back information about the attacks, in particular about the origin of the suspects.

In addition to the 31 suspects detained by federal officers, city police arrested two men from North Africa, aged 16 and 23.

Germany’s New Year’s Eve celebrations were stained by almost 170 criminal complaints of sexual assault and robberies in several German cities.

Initial reports indicated that the objective of the attacks was to steal from passengers, while the assault was secondary.

About 90 people have filed criminal complaints, including one report of a rape.

Merkel said on Thursday in Berlin, “we must examine again and again whether we have already done what is necessary in terms of… deportations from Germany in order to send clear signals to those who are not prepared to abide by our legal order”.

Police are expecting around 1,000 people to gather in front of the city’s main train station, German media reports say.

But if new rules are approved by Parliament, police might be granted more powers to check migrants’ identity documents.

“Everything has to be put on the table”, she said.

Six women in Zurich, Switzerland, told authorities they were “robbed from one side, [while] being groped… on the other side” by groups of men described as having dark skin, according to a Zurich police statement released Friday. The monopoly on the use of force belongs to the state, the police press service stated.

After Germany took in some 1.1 million refugees in 2015, the German leader said her objective remains to “noticeably reduce” the influx this year, primarily by addressing the root causes, including the civil war in Syria, and seeking an agreement by Turkey to help protect the European Union’s external border.