Posted on October 17, 2016

Mayor of Resort Town Pleads for Merkel to Help as Migrants ‘Take Over and Assault Locals’

Zoe Efstathiou, Express, October 17, 2016

Dr Sigrid Meierhofer, mayor of ski resort town Garmisch-Partenkirchen, wrote a leaked letter to the government describing the “massive problem” of migrants locally.

She pleaded for support, begging action be taken to “secure public safety and order” after local police clashed with migrants in public brawls.

Dr Meirhofer said she is particularly concerned about the Abrams Centre, a registration centre in the town which houses 250 asylum seekers.

She said the migrants, which local media claim are mostly single men from Africa, have become “problematic” and are threatening “public order”.

The mayor said: “There has been an increasingly worsening situation in recent weeks around the Abrams registration centre.”

Police have responded to more incidents in the past six weeks around the centre than in the past 12 months, according to local media.

Deputy police chief Thomas Holzer claimed the refugees “are in charge”, adding: “There are brawls, fights and property damage, and that they occupy the best wi-fi places, choose who sleeps in what room.

“The situation is a problem for us and causes some concern. In September, we recorded a quarter of our annual operation.”

Local people have taken to social media to describe sexual assaults that have taken place near the centre, but local police have been unable to confirm the reports.

The letter comes as Merkel comes under increased pressure to tackle immigration, after encouraging a diaspora of migrants by welcoming them to Germany last year.

Tensions between local people and refugees are on the rise, with a recent report showing that more than half of the attackers who sexually assaulted 1,200 women during New Year’s Eve celebrations in Colongne and Hamburg were foreign nationals.