The employees and passengers are also afraid of the aggressive migrants on the trains of the German railway, Steffi Recknagel, the head of the Thuringian Railway and Transport Trade Union (EVG) stated Focus Online .
The head of the union reported the conditions of a "civil war", according to him, the German railway has now turned into a "life-threatening battlefield" due to violent migrants. The fact that German trains are becoming more and more dangerous is proven by the shocking headlines and crime statistics that appear every week. According to Reckangel, an average of three employees contact him a week because they have been attacked, spat on, insulted, and threatened.
More than half of the stabbings are committed by foreigners
New data from Germany's Federal Crime Agency (BKA) revealed that in 2023, the number of knife attacks at train stations increased by an alarming 32 percent compared to the previous year. This is almost double the number of attacks registered in 2019.
The data of the Federal Ministry of the Interior show that there were 1,160 knife attacks in 2023,
compared to 882 the previous year. Foreign nationals made up 51 percent of knife crime suspects, despite making up only 16 percent of Germany's total population.
Although holders of German passports, meanwhile, accounted for 44 percent of suspects, it is unclear whether or not these individuals include those with a migrant background, as this information is not included in official crime statistics. The nationality of the remaining 270 suspects could not be established.
Women are at the vanguard of violence
Female workers and passengers are particularly vulnerable to attacks by migrants. They regularly refer to, for example, that
the female ticket inspectors cannot talk to them, they cannot take action against them, because they are women.
One of the worst cases happened in February this year, when a North African migrant brutally beat a female railway worker who was checking tickets and then
humiliated his victim by urinating on him in front of several witnesses.
In March, a woman of Malian origin attacked a ticket inspector when it was discovered that she had traveled on the train without a ticket. After being taken off the train, the woman also attacked the arriving police officers, biting one of them.
The union leader said that although the situation is bad in the entire province, the most dangerous lines are in the area of the provincial capital Erfurt, which, according to Reckangel, is due to the nearby migrant camp.
In January, an Afghan migrant was arrested for masturbating while lying on the railway tracks in Kassel, Germany, not far from Erfurt.
due to which rail transport in the region had to be stopped.
Reckangel also said that many conductors, when migrants are traveling on the train, prefer not to check the tickets and prefer to lock themselves in their cabins or pull themselves up next to the train driver. He cited several examples when his colleagues serving on the train were in a life-threatening situation: on one occasion, two gangs of migrants clashed in one of the train cars, as a result of which
the whole car was covered in blood.
He added that young migrants almost always travel in groups, "together they feel strong", he said.
The authorities are powerless
During the incidents, the passengers do not dare to intervene, and the railway security guards do not have the tools and authority to handle the situation effectively. "All they can do is drop people off at the next train station, and even if they are stopped by the police, they usually just question them and then let them go," he said.
A week later, the same people are on the train again, and the whole thing continues"
- He told. This also happened in the case where an Iraqi migrant was arrested for raping an 18-year-old girl on the train, but was released from custody the same day.
The fact that the German police and justice do not frighten migrants is not a new phenomenon. In January, an Afghan asylum seeker who is also a convicted pedophile told a German court that he raped a teenager who fell asleep on a long-distance train because he "felt like it" .
The highest regional court in Frankfurt ordered Deutsche Bahn to offer passengers the option of a third gender when purchasing tickets. The court found that the company could not force people who identify as neither male nor female to choose between the two classic gender categories. Deutsche Bahn has six months to implement the new ruling or appeal to the Constitutional Court. The decision follows a lawsuit filed by a woman who describes herself as "non-binary." The gender entry on her birth certificate was “unspecified” and the customer felt that she was discriminated against when purchasing the rail card because she had to choose between male and female categories on the application form.
The railway companies operating in the region are constantly lobbying politicians to deal with the issue, among other things, the EVG works council sent a letter to the left-wing prime minister of Thuringia, Bodo Ramelow, in which they described the agonizing crimes that befell the railway workers. It was also noted that these attacks cause severe psychological trauma to both workers and passengers. They pointed out that scenes often take place on the trains that could even come from a civil war zone.
Indeed, passengers cannot feel safe on trains either, in addition to regular stabbings, they also have to face the fact that
migrants push passengers onto the tracks on numerous occasions.
• Last March, for example, two migrants pushed a German man onto the tracks because he did not give them cigarettes. When the victim tried to climb back onto the platform, his assailants assaulted him a second time.
• In July 2018, a 41-year-old Eritrean citizen pushed an 8-year-old girl in front of a train in Frankfurt. He eventually avoided prison and ended up in a mental institution due to his alleged mental illness.
• In January 2021, a Nigerian man, also in Frankfurt, pushed a 60-year-old woman onto the tracks, causing her serious injuries.
• And in May, a 30-year-old Afghan man tried to push a 12-year-old girl in front of an oncoming train in Schwering.
• In January of this year, a 27-year-old Syrian citizen threw a teenage girl onto the tracks at the Altena train station.
Left-wing politicians are blamed
The letter directly criticizes left-wing politicians, including Thuringia Prime Minister Ramelow, saying that politicians at the federal and state level talk about "integration" and "tolerance towards migrants",
while the citizens have to face the violence.
Ramelow and other politicians responded by increasing policing on troubled rail lines and hiring more security guards, as well as pledging to meet regularly with union representatives to "monitor the situation."
At the same time, Reckangel doubts how seriously politicians' promises can be taken. According to him, it is not clear where the money or personnel will come from to protect railway workers. He added that due to the increase in crime due to the increase in the number of immigrants, the police and security forces are overburdened at all levels, not only in the railway system.
Featured image: imago/Ralph Peters
