Foreigners committed almost two-thirds of sexual harassment cases in swimming pools in North Rhine-Westphalia (Germany) in 2024

With less than two weeks to go before the next elections in Germany, in the most populous state of North Rhine-Westphalia, the debate on the problems that mass immigration, especially from North Africa and the Middle East, is bringing to the country is on the table. And it is precisely in the summers that this same state has seen a proliferation of incidents involving foreigners in public swimming pools.

The latest data from 2024 shows that more than 65% of sexual offences were committed by foreigners, while 35% were committed by German citizens, although official statistics do not reveal how many of the latter were, in fact, recently naturalised foreigners.

The information from the Police Crime Statistics Office (PKS) was published at the parliamentary request of the Alternative for Germany (AfD) party and shows that in 2024 there were 119 cases of sexual harassment in swimming pools. Almost 80 were foreigners, including two of unknown nationality. Of the foreign suspects, 22 were Afghan, 12 Syrian, eight Turkish, six Bulgarian and six Iraqi. There were also Albanians, Algerians and Ukrainians, although this group represented a smaller number of suspects.

Thanks to recent changes in the nationality register in North Rhine-Westphalia, it has also been revealed that nine of the German suspects have another passport. This represents 21.4% of all German suspects with another foreign passport.

The first names of the German suspects were also reported. Some of them appear to be German, such as Alexander and Daniel; however, the names Amir, Mahdi and Mohamad (in various forms) also appear, along with Seyed.