A few days before 30 refugees moved into the “Spreehotel” in Saxony, a fire broke out in the building. Saxony’s interior minister suspects xenophobia behind the crime and condemns it as “deeply primitive and inhuman”. The perpetrators will be “arrested” as soon as possible.
An arson attack has been carried out on a planned refugee accommodation in Bautzen, Saxony. Unknown persons threw in several window panes at the “Spreehotel” on Friday morning, according to the Saxony State Criminal Police Office (LKA) in Dresden. A fire broke out inside the building and was extinguished by firefighters. Four employees of the accommodation, who were in the house at the time of the crime, were not injured.
According to the Bautzen district, the first 30 refugees, exclusively families, were to move into the building on November 3rd. The house was cordoned off extensively. The police, a fire investigator and a tracking dog were on site. The amount of damage was initially unclear. The police counter-terrorism and extremism center in the LKA took over the investigation.
According to the district, the “Spreehotel” has already been used as refugee accommodation in the past. In 2017 it was closed due to a lack of demand and has now been reactivated and renovated due to the increasing number of refugees. According to the district, it is still unclear whether and when the refugees can move in there.
Saxony’s Interior Minister Armin Schuster condemned the act. “Setting houses on fire out of hatred because you don’t want refugees near you is deeply primitive and inhuman,” explained Schuster. He assumes a xenophobic attack.
Only on Tuesday evening did the AfD protest against the accommodation of refugees with a meeting in front of the Spreehotel, he explained. The investigations are now being pursued at full speed. “We will do everything we can to arrest the perpetrators and bring them to justice,” emphasized the minister. The Bautzen District Administrator Udo Witschas was also “absolutely shocked and angry”. At the time of the fire, employees of the house lived in the building. “Thus, human lives were carelessly endangered,” Witschas explained.
The domestic policy spokesman for the SPD parliamentary group in the Saxon state parliament, Albrecht Pallas, spoke of a “cowardly attack”. The act was “a wake-up call for the authorities, but also for society” to defend itself more strongly against misanthropy and democracy.
Just last week there was an arson attack on a shelter for Ukrainian refugees in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania. The police assume a political background. At the time of the fire, 14 residents, mostly of Ukrainian origin, and three employees were staying in the hotel used as refugee accommodation in Groß Strömkendorf near Wismar. Nobody got hurt.