No Name, No Accountability
Mila was only fourteen years old when she was raped. After enjoying a cigarette with her classmates in Berlin, she left her friends early to return home. “I assume that’s when he spotted me,” she says. Mila was walking through the neighborhood when an adult man approached, restrained, and then assaulted her. The man was never caught. When a refugee is identified as a suspect or offender, German authorities can prosecute them under the same criminal law that applies to German citizens and other people within the country. However, a conviction does not always mean an offender can be deported after serving their sentence. A few notable challenges are missing travel documents and difficulties confirming a person’s nationality with their country of origin. Germany also cannot return a refugee to a country where they face a verifiable risk of torture or inhuman treatment, even if that refugee has committed a serious crime like sexual assault. As a result, an offender could potentially remain in Germany after being released.
Missing identity documents create another problem. Some refugees arrive without passports, leaving authorities to establish their identities through other methods, including information from guest registers at hostels or hotels where they may have stayed. “I worked at two hostels while in Germany and both played fast and loose with the documentation rules,” says Jessica Tutor. “While there were no sexual assaults while I was there [hostel], there were regular reports of women feeling ‘creeped out’ by the men who did long-term stays.”
A police inspection of a hostel on Wundtstraße on April 20, 2021 documented a case where officers visited and investigated the hotel after receiving an anonymous tip from the public. According to Berlin police, the owner had not documented his guests’ identities and could not provide specific information about them. Among the guests were individuals who police suspected had left their assigned refugee accommodation to flee a potential deportation. Officers also found a 26-year-old man who was staying in Germany unlawfully. Authorities closed the hotel and investigated the operator for violating the Residence Act. Although the police statement reported no sexual assault, the case provides an example of what can happen when guest records are incomplete: authorities may not know who is staying at a particular address.
Mila left her friends that evening with the normal expectation of making it home safely. At fourteen, she should not have been expected to remember every detail of her attacker’s face, especially after experiencing a violent assault. His identity remains unknown, and neither his appearance nor the neighborhood where the assault occurred can establish where he came from. For Mila, accountability would mean knowing the identity of the man who assaulted her. Years later, she still does not.
