Alarming spike in crime on trains and stations across Europe

Photo: railadvent.co.uk

More criminal offences are being committed on trains and at train stations in Britain and Germany, and the response from officials in these countries to their own trends are markedly different, writes ‘The European Conservative’.

Figures obtained by German media organisation NiUS make specifically note that about half of the 13,543 violent crimes at stations in the first half of this year — that’s almost 27% more than in the same period just two years ago — were committed by foreign nationals. Non-German suspects were particularly overrepresented in sexual crimes at train stations, 59% of which were committed by individuals without German passports.

London officials, on the other hand, appear keen to suggest the statistical rise in Britain is largely superficial. British Transport Police have attributed the more than 50% increase in violent attacks against women and girls on the nation’s railways to a greater reporting of offences, according to The Times.

Reporting on British railway offences also lack information about the perpetrators, which is likely to add weight behind former immigration minister and Tory leadership contender Robert Jenrick’s campaign for migrant crime data to be published. The Migration Observatory at Oxford University complained earlier this year that official data on crimes committed by foreign nationals is “very limited.”

The 50% figure reported by the Times only covers violent attacks against women, although reports have also been flowing in over recent months of a range of other offences being committed on railways.

Violent crime likewise appears a regular occurrence at stations elsewhere in Europe, such as in France and Belgium — particularly in Brussels.

The level of crime on railways across the continent points to the transient nature of these systems and the blatant vulnerability of individuals on platforms. It also raises questions about crime-prevention efforts and the presence — or lack thereof — of police where offences are being carried out.

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