German slams ‘shameful’ attacks on refugees in Saxony

Germany has condemned a recent xenophobic assault on a refugee bus in the eastern state of Saxony, saying the attempt to prevent refugees from entering a shelter is “deeply shameful.”

“How cold-hearted, how cowardly one has to be to plant oneself in front of a refugee bus, to swear and to roar in order to scare the people sitting inside, among them several women and children,” government spokesman Steffen Seibert said.

He said many people in Saxony care for refugees in “a decent, compassionate manner,” adding that “it would be completely wrong to now draw conclusions on an entire region from incidents like in Clausnitz.”

On Thursday, about 100 people blocked the bus transporting refugees to a shelter in Clausnitz, a small town about 40 km (24.8 miles) from Dresden, yelling “Get lost”, “Stop crying and go home if you don’t like it here” and “Pull them out.”

Video footage posted online showed the crowd surrounding the bus, chanting slurs and hindering the refugees from getting off. Several women and two minors on the bus can be seen crying and hugging each other in fear.

A German police officer is seen in a video forcibly dragging a young refugee boy off the bus and into the housing, sparking widespread criticism of police abuses against the asylum seekers.

EA