Germany Is Running Out of Prison Cells Because of Refugee Crisis

Germany is about to run out of prison cells due to the unprecedented migrant influx in the country.

Foreigners make up 9 percent of Germany’s population, but close to 30 percent of its prison population. The number is even higher among incarcerated people awaiting trial, as there is a risk they will leave the country.

The states need to hire more people and open new facilities to cope, according to Federal Union of Prison Staff (BSBD) President Anton Bachl.

“The wave of refugees is not without consequence for the German prisons,” Bachl said in Thursday’s edition of Neue Osnabrucker Zeitung (NOZ), “because more than one million refugees have come in the past year, with 30,000 [criminal] cases in process.”

Bachl expects these cases will result in at least 2,000 prison sentences.

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