Attacks on and abuses within asylum reception centres are increasing across Germany; even those that attract widespread media attention seem to garner little effective action from the German criminal justice system. Germany’s booming private security industry, which operates with sparse legislative oversight or accountability, is attracting large numbers of neo-Nazis to its ranks. It is estimated that one in ten neo-Nazis known to the intelligence services works in private security. And it is private security companies, operating for profit, that are largely contracted to guard and manage Germany’s refugee centres. Thus, those who are most hostile to refugees and asylum seekers are those who, increasingly, are being put in positions of direct access to and authority over them.
Author’s interview with EickVolker, 20February2016. All quotations from Volker Eick are taken from this, unless otherwise stated.
7.
Eick, ‘Preventative urban discipline’, p. 14.
8.
German security companies, for example, operate based only on the Industrial Code (Gewerbeordnung, in particular § 34a) and the Security Guarding Act (Bewachungsverordnung), neither requiring parliamentary decisions or public oversight.
9.
The other three states are Austria, Cyprus, and Slovakia.
10.
Interview EickVolker, 20February2016.
11.
BerlinAbgeordnetenhaus, ‘Sicherheitskonzepte und Wachschutz in Flüchtlingsunterkünften’ (Drs. 17/16 561 v. 22July2015).
12.
Eick, ‘Preventative urban discipline’, p. 12.
13.
Eick, ‘Preventative urban discipline’, p. 13.
14.
Bundesverband der Sicherheitswirtschaft, BDSW, 43/2015 (press release), 14September2015.
‘Germany in flames’, Die Zeit-online, 4December2015.
22.
In North-Rhine Westphalia, where the city of Burbach is located, public pressure was strong enough to let the police investigate in all refugee centres, resulting in fifty-eight security guards being sued – and 10 per cent of the 300 losing their jobs pre-trial, ‘Ermittlungen gegen 58 Wachleute aus Flüchtlingsheimen’, RP-online, 10December2014, available at: http://www.rp-online.de/nrw/panorama/ermittlungen-gegen-58-wachleute-aus-fluechtlingsheimen-aid-1.4731259.
Bundesministeriums für Wirtschaft und Energie, Eckpunktepapier des Bund-Länder-Ausschusses ‘Gewerberecht’ zur Überarbeitung des Bewachungsrechts (Berlin, 2015).
25.
Additionally, the Verfassungsschutzämter on the Federal and State level (Offices for the Protextion of the Constitution, the domestic secret services) can be consulted.
26.
Further planned regulations include: guards working at management level in refugee reception centres, or to police major events such as a Football World Cup, will need to successfully have passed statutory exams; finally, an electronic registry of both companies and guards should be in place by 31 December 2017; see ‘Kabinett beschleisst strengere Regeln für Bewachungsgewerbe’, 23March2016, available at: http://www.bmwi.de/DE/Presse/pressemitteilungen,did=758658.html.
27.
Bundesverband der Sicherheitswirtschaft, Presseinformation BDSW 45 / 2015, 28September2015.
28.
Interview with EickVolker, 23March2016.
29.
Trial notes from the WDR, a regional public radio station, claim that on 18 September 2015 ‘Accusations against three of the five security guards turn out to be false … as the key witness, who initially reported the other two security guards, mysteriously disappeared and is said to have travelled to Italy.’
30.
Abgeordnetenhaus Berlin, ‘Sicherheitsdienst vor dem Landesamt für Gesundheit und Soziales, LAGeSo (Drs. 17/16 848 v. 9September2015).
31.
Eick, ‘Preventative urban discipline’, p. 14.
32.
It is for this reason that, according to Eick, neither the Federal ministries nor the lobby organisations of corporate security (which want to avoid more control) are interested in adopting a law, see Bundesministeriums für Wirtschaft und Energie, Eckpunktepapier des Bund-Länder-Ausschusses ‘Gewerberecht’ zur Überarbeitung des Bewachungsrechts (Berlin, 2015).
