By Remix News
In various German federal states, more than 50 percent of the prison population consists of foreigners, with an annual cost of €2 billion for taxpayers, according to an exclusive report from the Austrian news outlet Freilich.
By mid-July, the state media outlet SWR reported that over 50 percent of all prisoners in Baden-Württemberg are foreigners for the first time, currently standing at 50.8 percent. Freilich investigated other German states and found that five more have prison populations with over 50 percent foreign inmates.
Hamburg has the highest proportion of foreigners at 57.8 percent.
In North Rhine-Westphalia, the most populous state in Germany, the percentage is 40.4 percent, with Turks, Poles, Syrians, Moroccans, and Romanians being the top offenders. In Bavaria, the second-largest state by population, 51.1 percent of prisoners are foreign nationals.
Statistics do not differentiate between ethnic Germans and Middle Easterners born in Germany, only showing if the perpetrator has a German passport. In Hesse, 51.4 percent of prisoners are foreigners, with the largest groups coming from Algeria and Morocco.
As of July 22, 2024, Berlin had 56.4 percent foreign prisoners out of a total of 3,588. In Bremen, 56 percent of prisoners are foreigners.
Other states, such as Lower Saxony, Rhineland-Palatinate, Saxony, Schleswig-Holstein, Brandenburg, Saxony-Anhalt, Saarland, and Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, have varying percentages of foreign inmates.
Thuringia has the lowest proportion of foreign offenders at 15.9 percent.
Soaring costs and calls for reform
Freilich notes that accommodating prisoners burdens public coffers and taxpayers, with an annual cost of €4.137 billion for all federal states, €1.815 billion of which is spent on foreign prisoners.
The Alternative for Germany (AfD) party criticizes the high number of foreign offenders, calling for a change in migration policy to improve security and reduce financial strain on taxpayers.
Deputy domestic policy spokesman Martin Hess emphasized the need for decisive action against foreign crime and consistent deportation of illegal immigrants to prevent further criminal activity.
“Remigration is security. It is no longer acceptable for citizens to be let down by those in political positions of responsibility,” he added.
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