Police evict far-right in Germany's Heidenau

Police exercised a court-endorsed assembly ban on Friday night to disperse scores of far-right detractors, who had again tried to protest outside the town's new hostel for some 600 asylum-seekers.

The protestors, some carrying beer bottles, were encircled by ten police vans (pictured above). Each was singularly required to give personal details, photographed, and then told to leave the vicinity.

Heidenau, near Dresden, in Germany's eastern state of Saxony, last weekend became the focus of efforts to absorb asylum-seekers when local police squads struggled to quell rioting by hundreds opposed to recent migrant arrivals.

Welcome goes ahead

On Friday afternoon, while regional authorities and courts wrangled to-and-fro over the legality of outlawing gatherings in Heidenau, migrant supporters went ahead with welcome festivities.

They were held within the grounds of a hostel, a former building supplies store. Residents awaiting asylum decisions were offered grilled food and music. An inflatable bouncy castle was set up for children.

Late on Friday, Saxony's top administrative court reaffirmed the ban until Monday morning on the grounds that authorities could still not ensure public safety.

Guests at the welcome festivities included Greens co-leader Cem Özdemir, a long-time advocate of liberalizing migration practices in Germany.

Making a brief visit, Saxony's Interior Minister Markus Ulbig was booed by left-wing demonstrators over his allegedly inconsequent handling of last weekend's rioting.

Deal with far-right, says Tillich

In a rare comment, conservative state premier Stanislav Tillich told Germany's tabloid newspaper Bild on Saturday that Saxony would "deal rigorously" with the region's far-right scene, which he said was on the fringe of an otherwise "world-open" community.

Tillich said he was relieved that the Heidenau welcome for asylum-seekers went ahead. Saxony police were working to their limit, however, with assistance from other German states, the festivities had been safeguarded, he said.

German Interior Ministry spokesman Johannes Dimroth said on Friday federal police would also be sent to Heidenau to support local forces.

Left-wing groups plan a demonstration on Saturday in support of asylum-seekers in Dresden, Saxony's state capital, the scene of anti-migrant protests early this year.

Coordinate help, says Merkel

German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who visited Heidenau on Wednesday in a show of support from refugees and volunteers, said EU interior ministers meeting this weekend would look into "rapid changes to the asylum system."

She said Greece and Italy, where most asylum-seekers enter Europe's open-borders zone, needed common registration centers equipped with "European-wide personnel."

Speaking in Berlin on Friday alongside visiting Danish Prime Minister Lars Loekke Rasmussen, Merkel reiterated Germany's demand that incoming asylum-seekers be fairly distributed among the EU's 28 nations.

Germany expects some 800,000 migrants this year and complains that many others in Europe are not pulling their weight.

Rasmussen said burden sharing was "not a solution in itself."

"We also need to reduce the numbers of migrants that arrive in Europe to be able to welcome those refugees who have a real need for protection," Rasmussen said.

Stop hindrance, says EU Schulz

Saturday's edition of Die Welt newspaper quoted European Parliament President Martin Schulz, a German Social Democrat, as putting the blame on "blatant" hindrance by some EU governments.

"The EU commission and the EU parliament long ago put practicable solutions on the table, but they have been aborted by some national governments, who don't care about the interests of Europe (as a whole)," Schulz said.

"The current refugee crisis shows what happens when less Europe is practiced. The Mediterranean has become a mass grave and grueling scenes take place along the borders," he added.

Germans have been widely credited for volunteering to welcome and assist refugees, but attacks by suspected far-right perpetrators have surged over the past year.

On Friday, a petrol bomb was thrown into a former school building converted into hostel in Salzhemmendorf in northwestern Germany. Police said the blaze was quickly extinguished. No-one among the 30 asylum-seekers was injured.

ipj/lw (AFP, dpa, KNA)