Germany's BKA federal investigative police force published its data on migrant crime statistics for 2024. 

It said that of 1.967 million known criminal suspects in 2024, 172,203 were temporary migrants like asylum seekers, people granted asylum or other temporary rights to reside, or people in the country illegally.

That equates to 8.8% of the total, an almost identical share to the 8.9% recorded in 2023.

The BKA gave a figure of roughly 3.06 million temporary migrants in Germany, in a country of roughly 83.6 million. However, the BKA declined to calculate percentages based on these totals, saying its figures for temporary migrants constituted only the "best available approximation" of the total and so was inadequate for precise calculations. 

Roughly one-third of the suspects, almost 697,000, were not German citizens. That larger figure includes people with longer-term or permanent residency rights. This cohort makes up roughly 15% of the population as a whole.

The remainder, 64.6% of suspects, were German nationals. 

Proportionally fewer Ukrainian suspects

The BKA noted that Ukrainian temporary migrants displaced by Russia's invasion were less likely to be involved in criminal activity than migrants as a whole, with the cohort accounting for almost 36% of temporary migrants but less than 13% of the suspects.

The second largest group of temporary migrants by nationality, Syrians, accounted for 21.2% of the cohort and for 20.5% of the suspects.

Nationalities where the share of criminal suspects was higher than the proportion of people in Germany included citizens of Algeria, Morocco, Georgia, Tunisia, Nigeria and Albania. These countries combined accounted for roughly 2.1% of temporary migrants, but for roughly 15.5% of suspects from this cohort.

Shares of individual crimes broadly comparable to the overall totals

In terms of the types of crimes being investigated, the proportions did not tend to stray far from the overall figure. 

Roughly 12% of homicide cases and 12% of theft, financial crimes and forgery cases involved suspects who were temporary migrants. 

For crimes like sex offenses, assaults, and narcotics charges, the figures were between 8% and 10%. 

The BKA attributed a slight reduction in the overall total number of crimes when compared to 2023 in large part to the relaxation of cannabis rules in Germany. 

It warned of a rising proportion of organized crime cases involving temporary migrants, at 13% overall, with above-average levels noted in organized crime narcotics offenses and people trafficking. 

Four in five suspects aged 40 or younger

More than half of the migrant suspects were aged 30 or younger, and three-quarters were male. Roughly one-third of the suspects were also thought to be involved in two or more cases.

Over-40s made up only 18% of suspects while accounting for 37.6% of migrants.

The BKA also recorded a 5% year-on-year increase in the number of temporary migrants who were the victims of crime, at just over 70,000 people.

This included 212 attacks, 23 of them violent crimes, targeting refugee reception centers, a 38.6% increase on the previous year.

Author: Mark Hallam with AFP, dpa

First published: December 9, 2025

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