22 February 2016•Update: 25 February 2016
BERLIN
German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s government has condemned racist protests against refugees in the eastern state of Saxony over the weekend.
Merkel’s spokesman said at a press conference in Berlin on Monday that violent protests against refugees were "deeply shameful", and were not representing Germany.
"Our country knows that this issue is essentially about people who are in need. We treat them with decency and sympathy," Steffen Seibert said.
He criticized right-wing populists and extremists, who carried out violent protests, propagating that those coming to Germany were exploiting the country's social security system.
Seibert said that a vast majority of German society is supporting government efforts for accommodating asylum seekers, who fled civil wars and conflicts.
Germany has taken in 1.1 million refugees in 2015; a surge in asylum applications has been exploited by far-right and populist parties.
Two incidents in the eastern state of Saxony over the weekend has created an uproar in the country, and raised concerns over growing anti-refugee violence in Saxony and other former communist states.
On Saturday, around 100 protesters in Clausnitz, a small village in Saxony, tried to block a bus carrying nearly 20 refugees to a new asylum shelter.
Protesters shouted slogans, and threatened refugees, while the police used force against asylum seekers, to make them leave the bus and enter asylum shelter immediately.
Crying refugee children and women among were seen in videos posted on social media.
In a second incident in Saxony on Sunday, onlookers greeted with cheers to the burning of a hotel, which was renovated to house asylum seekers.
Some people from the crowd also tried to stop firefighters, local media reported. Police were investigating a suspected arson attack.
Opposition parties criticized authorities in Saxony to not take appropriate measures against racist protests.
Saxony, the home of an anti-Islam and anti-refugee PEGIDA movement, has seen growing anti-migrant sentiments in recent years.
Dr. Oliver Decker of Leipzig University criticized state government and politicians in Saxony for underestimating the threat of far-right violence and racist crimes.
"That approach, in a way, legitimizes the violence by right-wing extremists," Decker told Anadolu Agency.
"The perpetrators then feel that their actions are not prosecuted, they feel that their actions are seen as legitimate by politics," he said.
Alexander Bosch, spokesman for Amnesty International, said recent anti-refugee violence is an "alarming" development.
"With a lot of luck, nobody died so far in arson attacks against asylum centers. The developments are worrying," Bosch told Anadolu Agency.
Bosch stressed that racism is a wider problem in the society, which is not limited to far-right extremists.
"Recent developments are also an expression of the fact that fight against racism has not been taken as a serious issue for many years," Bosch said.
