Christians refugees are being psychologically abused, physically mistreated and denied food at Muslim-dominated camps in Germany, a Christian persecution charity has claimed.
Germany accepted 1.1 million refugees during 2015. There have been numerous reports of violence in the refugee centres, however according to Open Doors International, local authorities have refused to acknowledge that religious differences fuel tension in the camps.
"We've heard much about the nasty treatment of Christians, and we're compiling a report to push politicians into action," Rachel Marsuk, a spokesperson for Open Doors, told Catholic News Service (CNS) yesterday.
"Politicians at [the] local and national level here have done nothing to help and don't want to hear about these cases. They don't see how religious differences have fuelled tensions and led to persecution," she said.
The worst abuses, Marsuk told CNS, have been in Berlin and other cities.
"We've had questionnaires returned detailing how Christian refugees have been psychologically abused, physically mistreated and denied food," she said. "The scale of this problem has been covered up or played down."
A spokesman for Berlin's archdiocese, Stefan Forner, reiterated that camp administrators had failed to recognise, or were ignoring, that Christians in particular were being persecuted.
"Some people don't even want to talk about Christians, fearing Muslims may have a problem with this," Forner said.
"We need to help those dealing with refugees to understand the situation of Christians in Syria and other countries of origin and be aware of the potential hazards of putting all the refugees together. When something bad happens, it must have consequences and not be hushed up," he said.
"Since many Christian refugees are too scared to speak out" it is crucial for the Church to actively help address this problem, Marsuk added.
