GERMANY-REFUGEES Gauck condemns racism as suspected arson attack in German refugee housing site

Record ID: 274702

  • Title: GERMANY-REFUGEES Gauck condemns racism as suspected arson attack in German refugee housing site
  • Date: 12th December 2014
  • Summary: VORRA, GERMANY (DECEMBER 12, 2014) (REUTERS) ***WARNING CONTAINS FLASH PHOTOGRAPHY*** PAN ACROSS BUILDING STILL UNDER RECONSTRUCTION TO HOUSE REFUGEES AND ASYLUM SEEKERS AFTER OVERNIGHT ARSON ATTACK, BROKEN ROOF TILES CHARRED WOOD UNDERNEATH ROOF TILES SWASTIKA AND SLOGAN IN GERMAN READING "NO HOME FOR ASYLUM SEEKERS" SPRAY PAINTED ONTO SIDE OF BUILDING, POLICE AT SITE P
  • Embargoed: 27th December 2014 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Germany
  • Country: Germany
  • Topics: General
  • Reuters ID: LVAB7I5OBBF4NERREBM7Y3HVPFIR
  • Story Text: German President Joachim Gauck condemned on Friday (December 12) the arson attack the previous night (December 11) on buildings being turned into refuges for asylum-seekers in the Bavarian town of Vorra.
    The buildings were also daubed with swastikas.
    "Well, arson is always despicable, and with a political background must be even more explicitly rejected and condemned. We have here the fact that the buildings were being prepared for the admission of people who need our help. And that these preparations alone bring out these acts potentially motivated by hatred - we do not know all the details yet - we can only react with the resolve of decent people," Gauck said.
    Although the buildings were empty at the time of the fire, security is being stepped up nevertheless. Police said that they were treating it as an arson case.
    With local officials struggling to cope with the largest number of asylum-seekers in Europe and with net immigration at its highest levels in two decades, Gauck said that Europe does need a debate about the number of refugees a country can take in.
    "Yes, there is a lot that needs to be done. But to generate anxieties, or even create movements which want to make Europe or our country turn into a 'closed shop', that is not right way to do it. That does not comply with our European values," Gauck said.
    Chancellor Angela Merkel condemned on Friday (December 12) a series of anti-Muslim demonstrations centred on the eastern city of Dresden, saying via an aide that there was "no place in Germany" for hatred of Muslims or any other religious or ethnic group.
    This week Merkel's conservatives debated banning the burqa, the full body covering worn by some Muslim women, and her Bavarian allies had to drop a proposal to oblige immigrants to speak German at home.
    Public expressions of anti-immigrant sentiment are largely taboo in mainstream German politics because of the Nazis' mass-murder of Jews and other groups in the Holocaust.
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