KELKHEIM, Germany (ChurchMilitant.com) - A new report from an alliance of Christian groups in Germany is finding that there were 743 attacks against Christians in refugee camps in Germany this year. The report shows that the situation for Christians in refugee shelters and camps is far from safe. In fact, Christian groups in the country believe their figures are on the low side, as they believe many cases go unreported.
"It must be assumed that there is a high number of unreported cases," the report stated. "Effective measures for the protection of religious minorities (in refugee camps) have yet to be implemented."
The study compiled figures from particular cases of discrimination and assault towards Christians owing to their faith, and conclusively shows that refugee shelters aren't safe for Christians. "The documented cases confirm that the situation of Christian refugees in German refugee shelters is still unbearable," the report concludes.
Assault and death threats are the most common forms of attack, as 416 people have reported being assaulted, and 314 have reported being threatened with death. This doesn't include insults, intimidation, general threats and various forms of persecution.
In one example, a Syrian Christian said, "A Macedonian woman attacked me with a knife, insulting me and shouting: 'You are not allowed to come into the kitchen or cook here, because you are a disgusting, pork-eating Christian infidel. It is forbidden for you to enter the kitchen, and if I see you here once more then I will stab you to death.'"
In other cases, Christians are also deliberately woken up at night and sexually harassed, with as many as 65 people reporting such crimes.
One female refugee from Iran commented, "In the beginning they were all good to us. They then realized that I am a Christian. From that moment on they treated me and my children very badly. They even forbade their children to talk to my children."
The examples show a clear pattern of violence and discrimination against Christians, forced to hide Bibles out of fear of being targeted by Muslims.
Multiple Christian migrants have filed complaints to no avail, their complaints often ignored, and no action taken. In one example, an Iranian Christian explained, "I reported the death threats I received to the Info point several times in Persian but they did not react. I reported it two to three times." Often, the staff at refugee centers are Muslim themselves and show solidarity with their fellow Muslims when presented with complaints by Christians.
Pastor Gottfried Martens, a German pastor well acquainted with the situation on the ground, confirmed the failure of staff to act. "There is not a single case in which Christian refugees in my church had been attacked and injured in their accommodation where the investigation was not dismissed in the end," he said. "In every case the attacked Christians word stood against the word of the attackers, who were always in the large majority. … In the end, each of the criminal charges only leads to further humiliation of the victims and a loss of confidence in the constitutional state."