Spotlight: Germany rattled over refugee policy as more information unveiled on Cologne assaults

Cologne police said Monday that the caseload of the New Year's Eve sex assaults near the city's railway station have reached 516, rising sharply from the previous 379, with around 40 percent of the criminal complaints related to allegations of sexual offenses.

German Federal Police have detected 32 crimes on New Year's Eve at Cologne's Central Station, where a group of around 1,000 people were surrounded, harassed and robbed, especially women. Thirty-one suspects have been identified by name, German media Focus Online reported on Friday.

According to the report, two thirds of the identified suspects were asylum seekers, a spokesman from the German Interior Ministry said on Friday, citing a preliminary report of the German Federal Police.

Those offenses mainly involved bodily injury and thefts, he said, adding that the asylum seekers were not previously associated with sexual offenses.

The New Year's Eve assaults in Cologne were largely blamed on asylum seekers and illegal migrants from North Africa, on whom police have set their focus for investigation.

A 19-year-old Moroccan man was arrested on Saturday evening over allegations that he stole a 23-year-old woman's cell phone on New Year's Eve, but he is not accused of a sexual offense.

Such violent attacks were also seen in Hamburg on New Year's Eve, where 108 complaints were filed. Cases were also recorded in Frankfurt, although much fewer.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Saturday blasted the assaults in Cologne as "disgusting, criminal deeds that require robust responses," adding that the offenders would "feel the hardness of the law."

The German leader also promised tougher action against foreign criminals, and expressed support for changes to the law to make it easier to expel migrants who perpetrate crimes.

"If criminal offenses are committed and people stand outside the law ...then there must be consequences for the asylum applications and applications for residence permits," said Merkel.

GROWING RIFT ON REFUGEE POLICY

The New Year's Eve sex assaults in Cologne have further rattled German society, as a protest march against the assaults turned violent.

On Saturday, protesters took to the streets in the western German city to voice anger at the scale of the Cologne violence. Police used water cannons and tear gas after protesters threw bottles, firecrackers and stones at the riot police, injuring three officers and a freelance journalist, according to local media.

About 500 of some 1,700 demonstrators were supporters of Pegida, a far-right organization that opposes immigration from the Middle East, police said.

The assaults have also prompted fierce debates in Germany between those who welcome asylum seekers and those who do not, putting an increasing amount of pressure on Merkel's government and its open-door policy toward asylum seekers. Last year, around 1 million refugees and migrants set foot on German soil.

German Justice Minister Heiko Maas speculated that the Cologne assaults were planned or coordinated, according to the Bild am Sonntag, the German national Sunday newspaper.

"When such a horde meets to commit crimes, it seems to have been planned in some way. Nobody can tell me that it wasn't coordinated or pre-prepared," Maas was quoted in the newspaper as saying.

Yet he warned that conclusions on crime should not be made based on race. "To infer from someone's background that he is more likely to commit a crime or not I find to be risky," Maas said.

Right-wing parties in the country have also renewed calls for caps on the number of refugees and asked Merkel to implement tighter border controls.

The leader of the parliamentary group of the Social Democratic Party, Thomas Oppermann, said on Sunday that they would "look impartially into" whether to change the legal position in the wake of the Cologne violence.

However, he called on the coalition partners not to fall into an "ideological row" over the issue, according to Germany's state-run news agency DPA.

German Minister-President of Hesse Volker Bouffier also expressed angst over the panic the Cologne violence may have caused. "Cologne has changed everything. People now are doubting," Bouffier was quoted by DPA as saying.

STOKING FEARS

The Cologne assaults have had a major, perceivable bearing on the Germans' mentality, stoking fear and a shift in attitude that many took toward asylum seekers.

In an article entitled "Is the New Year's Eve scandal the result of wrong policies" in the Bild newspaper, 49 percent of the respondents believed that similar assaults would possibly occur in their hometown.

Another poll by commercial radio RTL showed that 57 percent of Germans feared the influx of asylum seekers would incur more crime, while 40 percent said no.

However, the majority of those surveyed, taking up 60 percent, said they have not changed their opinions on foreigners. In comparison, 37 percent said they have become more critical and negative about newcomers.

Protective measures like border controls have gained more support among German nationals after the Cologne violence. In a separate survey by broadcaster ARD, 57 percent of those asked wanted to reinstate border controls, up 12 points from September.

Following revelations of the Cologne assaults over New Year's Eve, the same sort of attacks were also reported in other parts of Europe including Austria, Finland, Sweden and Switzerland.

In neighboring Austria, the Cologne assaults have sparked heated debates on immigration, as similar attacks hit the border city of Salzburg.

"What happened in Cologne is unbelievable and unacceptable," Austrian Interior Minister Johanna Mikl-Leitner told local newspaper Oesterreich. "Such offenders should be deported," she said.

Analysts said such violence may fuel outcries against refugees in Europe and lead to a higher bar for refugee policy-setting, making it even harder for bolder leaders to continue embracing incoming refugees. Endi