Refugee torture trial in Germany

Five accused guards (pictured above) sit on one side of the court with their lawyers. The Essen public prosecutor's office accuses the men of brutally beating refugees who asked for coffee or food outside normal mealtimes.

They are also charged with maltreating a group of refugees to break up a meeting in one of the dormitories.

"My client was ordered to stay away from the dormitory because he had smoked in his room, but then he decided to go to his friend's room," Christina Worm, the lawyer representing one of the plaintiffs, Fouad B., at the court in Essen, told DW about the specific complaint being addressed in the trial.

"The boys heard a sound outside the door and thought someone was trying to play a prank on them. At this point the security guards came in and used extreme violence while taking them outside."

As judges rain questions on the accused, the guards repeatedly deny having acted violently against the inmates, accusing them instead of throwing "chairs and stones" at them and of calling them "fascists and racists." They were only protecting themselves, the guards say.

The first in a series of migrant trials

The case against the five security officers in Essen is one in several cases of maltreatment of migrants reported last year in the western German state of North Rhine-Westphalia. Police released shocking pictures showing a security guard with his foot on a refugee's neck.

"These are pictures that most of us would associate with Guantanamo Bay," the police chief in nearby Hagen said at the time. The Burbach images caused widespread uproar among rights activists in Germany, resulting in an investigation of similar complaints in other homes for asylum seekers.

The plight of Fouad B., an 18-year-old Moroccan, was revealed when Anabel Jujol of the Essen city council visited the home for migrants. "At that time there was a meeting where we were told that the migrants were complaining," Jujol said.

"In English, they said 'They beat us and don't give us food.' We organized a formal visit to the home, but honestly, it seemed like they had staged it all," she said.

Jujol went the next day with clothes and toys for children and asked the residents to freely talk about their problems. That was when Fouad came to her and said, "I have never been treated like this, like a mangy dog," Jujol said.

A crisis situation for Germany - and Europe

The EU's border agency Frontex says more than 107,000 migrants made it into the EU illegally in July. The organization's director has called it an "emergency situation for Europe" requiring all EU member states to help countries receiving migrants at their borders. European countries have consequently had to set up new migrant camps to manage the crowds.

Overcrowding within homes has also led to problems between migrants themselves. For example, an asylum camp in Suhl in the central German state of Thuringia witnessed violence on Wednesday night after a group of migrants got into a fight when an inmate tore pages from the Koran.

Migrants as a threat?

Residents in Frintrop, near Essen, also expressed anger after a migrant was accused of sexually molesting a local girl.

But Olaf Swillus, an anti-racism campaigner, dismissed concerns that hate groups expressed in the media: "The reasons are unnecessary. There will always be reasons against accepting refugees."

The majority of Essen's population has been welcoming migrants. "There is a lot of willingness to help," said Gabriella Guidi of Anti-Rassismus Telefon, an organization that gauges public feeling towards racism and monitors racist incidents in Essen.

Guidi said there are different hate groups targeting different sections of the population. The ever-increasing flow of refugees coming to Europe, the constant demand for more refugee homes and the influx of foreign culture is being seen as a threat by many locals here. Guidi said not to worry: "There will be problems every time people come together."

The trial is set to continue until September 3, after which the judges are expected to come to a conclusion.