![A former hotel that was to soon serve as a shelter for 300 asylum applicants on February 21, 2016 in Bautzen, Germany [Sean Gallup/Getty Images]](https://i0.wp.com/www.middleeastmonitor.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/GettyImages-511559560-scaled-e1690975811751.jpg?resize=1200%2C800&quality=85&strip=all&zoom=1&ssl=1)
The number of politically motivated attacks on refugee shelters in Germany has steadily increased since the beginning of last year, with 80 crimes reported in the first half of this year, mostly involving far-right activists.
Following a parliamentary inquiry by the radical leftist opposition party the Left (Die Linke), the German government said there are reports of 80 politically motivated crimes in the first half of this year in which a refugee shelter was the scene of the crime or the direct target of the attack, the German Press Agency (DPA) reported today.
Of these, 74 were allegedly committed by right-wing suspects, with two offenses related to the phenomenon of "foreign ideology." In one instance, the police classified the crime as "religious ideology."
In the first half of 2022, police recorded 52 politically motivated crimes against refugee shelters, rising to 71 in the second half.
According to the German government, 39 people, including four children, were injured in crimes committed against asylum seekers, refugees and shelters in the second quarter of 2023.
The Left Party spokesperson on refugee matters, Clara Buenger, called the figures"alarming."
"It is alarming that people who seek protection here experience violence, hostility, and exclusion so often," Buenger was quoted as saying.
She accused the far-right AfD party, as well as the Christian Democratic Union of Germany (CDU) and its sister party, the Christian Social Union (CSU), of preparing the ground for "racist mobilisation" against refugees through "verbal attacks on the right to asylum."
Germany has witnessed growing racism in recent years, fueled by the propaganda of far-right groups and parties, which have exploited the refugee crisis and attempted to stoke fear of immigrants.
READ: Germany documents 900 racist attacks against Muslims in 2022
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