BERLIN: German police yesterday started an investigation into six private security guards at a refugee centre accused of assaulting and humiliating asylum seekers in ways that drew comparisons to abuse against Guantanamo Bay prisoners.
Police also questioned hundreds of refugees after disturbing photo and video footage emerged at the weekend, including an image showing a security guard pinning a handcuffed Algerian man to the floor with his boot on the man’s neck.
Police said they launched their investigation after a journalist passed on to them cellphone video footage that showed security guards forcing an elderly man to lie on a mattress covered in vomit while threatening to beat him.
North Rhine-Westphalia state Interior Minister Ralf Jaeger pledged to pursue “with utmost determination” the case in the refugee centre in Burbach, about 100 kilometres southeast of Cologne, vowing to ensure “that this never happens again”.
“These are images of the kind we’ve seen from Guantanamo Bay,” said Frank Richter, police chief of the nearby city of Hagen, referring to the controversial US military detention facility in Cuba.
Chancellor Angela Merkel’s spokesman said that if investigations confirm that “refugees were abused and humiliated, then these would be repulsive acts”.
“We are a humane country. In Germany, the dignity of man is respected... and that must be true in asylum centres and refugee camps,” said Steffen Seibert.
Local authorities at Burbach said they had ended the contract with the private security company Ski, a subsidiary of European Homecare which runs the facility, while police have begun questioning all of the roughly 700 people living in the centre.
“It’s terrible to imagine that people who have already suffered violence in other countries and come here looking for protection are then exposed to such a situation,” said the chief prosecutor of the nearby city of Siegen, Johannes Daheim. “This only reinforces their trauma.” Refugee rights group Pro Asyl said the brutal attacks were signs of “appalling racism” committed by unqualified guards. AFP
