At least one "non-German" suspect was involved in the country's closed murder cases in 2017 and their number has already significantly increased, according to a report released by the Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA).
The report said that last year saw a 33-percent surge in the number of closed murder cases, and that 731 people had died as a result of murder or manslaughter in 2017, which is a 16.6-percent drop compared to 2016. The survey did not elaborate on nationality or whether a suspect was an EU citizen.
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At the same time, the number of asylum seekers or refugees killed in Germany increased from 25 in 2016 to 40 in 2017, the survey pointed out.
The report came amid a debate on a possible link between foreign nationals and murders in Germany, which was fueled by recent protests in the eastern city of Chemnitz, where a 35-year-old German of Cuban origin was stabbed to death late last month by two alleged perpetrators, an Iraqi and a Syrian.
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In 2015, Germany took in over a million refugees as part of what German Chancellor Angela Merkel described as an "open-door policy" which was pursued amid the European migration crisis.
Ever since, multiple reports have blamed migrants and asylum-seekers living in Germany for gruesome rapes and murders. This has resulted in a wide public outcry over Merkel's migration policy and sparked a surge of right-wing and nationalistic sentiment across the country.
