Plans to establish a migrant shelter across the street have reportedly led to an increase in hate crimes, according to the owner of a homosexual bar in the German city.
The proprietor of a gay bar alleged, as reported by Bild, that there has recently been an increase in the frequency of attacks on LGBTQ people in Berlin by migrants. In addition to criticising government plans to build a refuge for hundreds of immigrants from nations with a majority of Muslims near to her business, the woman cited the apparent trend.
Carla Pahlau, the proprietor of the “Busche” club, warned that “over the past months the number of offences against homosexual people increased enormously,” according to a report in Bild on Saturday. According to her, immigrants with a Muslim background make up the “predominant number of offenders.”
Pahlau voiced fear for the security of her club’s customers should the city proceed with its plan to build a shelter across the street from her club for up to 650 migrants from Turkey, Syria, and Afghanistan.
‘Busche’ will ‘no longer be able to exist’ if there are confrontations between the club’s regulars and the newcomers, according to the Bild story.
Kurt Wansner and Timur Husein, representatives for the opposition Christian Democratic Party in the Berlin assembly, told Bild that they agreed with the club owner when she criticised the proposals for a migrant shelter. The legislators call the city’s decision to build there a “catastrophe,” and they say that the entrance of hundreds of refugees in a region already plagued by violence will only make matters worse.
The Left party’s vice mayor Oliver Noll, however, stressed that the locals and the impending migrants “will have to get used to each other.”
Asserting that social workers ought to be able to properly acclimatise the newcomers to their new surroundings, a member of Olaf Scholz’ Social Democratic Party told the media outlet that she saw no issue either.
German Labour Minister Hubertus Heil told the Financial Times in May that the country would significantly relax its entry and citizenship restrictions for foreign employees in order to address labour shortages.
The official announced, among other things, that Berlin would implement its own “Green Card” and let non-citizens to seek for citizenship after as little as three years of residency, as well as lifting a long-standing restriction on dual citizenship.
