German City Bans All New Refugees As Violent Crime Spikes

One small German city has started turning away new refugees amid an explosion of violence between the newcomers and a burgeoning (and illegal) neo-Nazi group that has taken root in the city.

Officials in the city of Cottbus - located about 120 kilometers (about 75 miles) - has been plagued by a surge of attacks from refugees and right-wing extremists since the beginning of the year.

According to Fox News, Brandenburg state police said two Syrian teenage boys were arrested under the suspicion of injuring a German teenager in the face with a knife last week.

The 16-year-old reportedly sustained injuries that were not life-threatening during a fight between Syrian and German schoolmates.

Days before the fight, a group of three Syrian asylum-seekers, aged 14, 15 and 17, attacked a51-year-old man and his wife outside a shopping center.

Officials handed the 15-year-old a “negative residency permit” effectively ordering him and his father to leave the city, Fox News reported.

The small university town - which has about 100,000 German residents - has taken in about 3,000 asylum-seekers sine German Chancellor Angela Merkel opened Germany"s doors to migrants in 2015.

Last weekend, around 100 masked neo-Nazis took part in an illegal demonstration when they marched through the city"s center, the Daily Mail reported.

Brandenburg Interior Minister Karl-Heinz Schroeter told the Mail that the ban on new refugees would be in effect "for the next few months".

Cottbus will also implement safety measures including increased video surveillance, a larger presence of police officers and 10 new social worker positions throughout local schools, officials said.

A few weeks ago, a study published by a German criminologist found that the influx of mostly young, male migrants had led to an increase in violent crime.

The study, conducted by criminologist Christian Pfeiffer, was funded by the German government. It incorporated data from the northern state of Lower Saxony to examine the impact that refugees had on crime.

Ultimately, it attributed a 10.4% rise in violent crimes in the state during those two years almost exclusively to refugees.