New data from Saxony’s Interior Ministry reveals that although immigrants make up just 8% of the region’s population, they were suspects in nearly 27% of all reported crimes in 2024—raising serious concerns about the impact of current asylum and immigration policies.
The figures were released in response to a formal inquiry by Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) lawmaker Sebastian Wippel. His request brought to light alarming trends tied to non-citizens, particularly asylum seekers and those whose deportations have been suspended—so-called “tolerated persons.”
Of the 6,564 crimes linked to asylum applicants, over 4,800 involved individuals who remain in Germany despite official deportation orders. These “tolerated” migrants were significantly implicated in a wide range of offenses, from petty theft to serious violence.
Sexual crimes were also troublingly high: 197 cases involved asylum seekers, and 84 were linked to individuals under international protection. Assaults, threats, and other violent offenses made up a substantial portion of the data, with thousands of cases pointing back to suspects with unresolved or temporary immigration statuses.
Complicating the picture further, officials noted that individuals with dual citizenship are categorized as German in the crime statistics, which may obscure the true scale of foreign involvement in criminal activity.
The data drop comes in the wake of the March federal election, where the AfD—Germany’s leading party critical of mass immigration—garnered a dominant 38.5% of the first vote in Saxony. The figures appear to reinforce public sentiment in the region, where concerns over safety and border control continue to grow louder.
The Interior Ministry has yet to announce whether the findings will lead to policy changes, but the political ramifications are already reverberating. As the debate over migration intensifies nationwide, Saxony’s numbers are likely to become a central point in Germany’s evolving immigration conversation.
