A gang of migrant youth have been terrorizing Hamburg since their arrival in Germany last year. The group, which consists of minors as young as 11, has committed nearly 300 crimes since 2023.
The boys, two of whom have been identified as a 16-year-old from Tunisia with dual citizenship and an 11-year-old from Morocco, have had run-ins with police over 280 times in the past year.
Their lengthy list of crimes feature 101 cases of physical assault, 29 cases of drug use, 30 attacks on refugee shelter staff, 35 instances of property damage, and over 40 investigations for threats.
According to Junge Freiheit, the 11-year-old Moroccan, who arrived in Germany unaccompanied, is believed to be the leader of the migrant gang. He has reportedly been responsible for 70 burglaries on his own, none of which he is able to be held criminally responsible for due to his young age.
Last Tuesday, after a string of such burglaries in the community of Norderstedt, police managed to catch and arrest the 11-year-old.
Speaking to press, Thomas Jungfer, the regional chairman of the German Police Union, suggested that the boy was fully aware of his legal immunity and had been using it to his advantage.
“We must not allow ourselves to be led around by the nose. Anyone who, as a child, knows exactly why they cannot be prosecuted and behaves accordingly, cheekily and defiantly, should be shown a clear stance by the constitutional state,” Jungfer said.
The boy has been caught and released repeatedly over the past year in part due to the fact that the left-wing government in Hamburg forbids minors to be detained in secure residential facilities. These centers, known as “closed accommodations,” have previously sparked controversy for allegedly limiting the liberty of minors.
But following this latest arrest, Germany’s youth welfare services pushed to have the boy taken out of the Hamburg area so that he can be placed in such a center. The services cited the fact that the youth migrant facility where the boy had been living was unable to control him, and that he had escaped the center over 100 times with ease.
The request has been approved, and arrangements are now being made for the boy to be sent to a closed accommodation in another state.
