No Paperwork, No Problem!
Mila was only fourteen years old when she was raped. After enjoying a cigarette with her classmates in Weichselplatz, a playground next to the Neukölln shipping canal, 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. She assumed he was a Syrian refugee based on his physical appearance and the borough’s demographics, including its large refugee population; however, this is conjecture and has not been verified. The man was never caught, and little was done by Berlin authorities to ensure accountability for the attack. Mila’s story serves as one example of the growing sexual violence within Germany’s own borders.
Unsolved assaults like Mila’s are common in Berlin’s police records. In 2025, police in the city documented 1,300+ cases of sexual assaults in particularly serious cases, according to state parliament preliminary data. Ninety-four of those cases occurred in the borough of Neukölln, the borough where Mila was walking through. Among the victims across Berlin, 268 were between 14 and 17, which was also Mila’s age group at the time of her attack. Police identified at least one suspect in almost 900 cases which left 425 with no suspect identified, roughly one third.
Refugee status does not exempt a refugee from prosecution or imprisonment; however, that does not mean there will be consequences. When a refugee is identified as a suspect or offender, German authorities can prosecute them under the same criminal law that applies to any normal German citizen or tourist; however, a conviction does not always mean an offender can be deported after serving their sentence. A few notable challenges are possible missing travel documents and difficulties confirming their nationality with the country of origin. Germany also cannot return a refugee to a country where they face a verifiable risk of torture or inhuman treatment(s), regardless if that refugee has committed a serious crime, like a sexual assault. As a result of this, an offender would potentially remain in Germany after being released. Another obstacle authorities encounter are establishing a refugee suspect’s identity when their identity documents are missing or nationality cannot be confirmed. Some refugees arrive without a passport, leaving authorities to establish their identity through other methods, like trying to locate someone via the information of a guest register at a hostel or hotel where that person 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 Wundtstrabe 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 identity and could not provide specific information about them. Amongst the guests were individuals who police suspected had left their assigned refugee accommodation to flee a potential deportation. Additionally, officers also found a 26-year-old man who was staying in Germany unlawfully. Authorities then had to close the hotel and investigate the operator for violating the Residence Act. Although the police statement reported no sexual assault, this case adds some context for how missing guest records would leave German authorities lacking information about who is staying where.
Women staying in a hostel should be able to expect that their concerns will be taken seriously and that staff know who else is staying there. Reports of men making guests uncomfortable do not establish criminal behavior; regardless, they deserve attention and recognition before anything more serious happens. Tutor comments further this concern as reports of potential crimes may be occurring in places where basic documentation was already being neglected. It is also important to note that there is no evidence that a hostel sheltered Mila’s attacker but by not keeping accurate guest records, it exposes flaws in a system especially where there seems a reasonable responsibility for businesses where strangers share bedrooms and bathrooms.
Mila left her friends that evening with the normal expectation to make it home safely. At fourteen, she should have not been expected to remember every detail of her attacker’s face to help with his identification, especially in the modern world full of technological advancements. Her attacker’s identity remains unknown, and neither his appearance nor the neighborhood can establish where he came from. For Mila, accountability would mean “knowing the identity of the man who assaulted her” so she can “no longer question the safety of her neighborhood; This is an answer she is still waiting for, and will remain waiting until there is effective change.
- Mila, interview by Ellis Speagle on September 23rd, 2026. Surname requested to be withheld.
- Berlin Senate Department for the Interior and Sport, response to written inquiry, January 20, 2026.
- German Criminal Code (Strafgesetzbuch)
- Jessica Tutor, interview by Ellis Speagle, September 23rd, 2026.
- Polizei Berlin, “Gemeinsamer Einsatz mit dem Ordnungsamt. Hotel versiegelt”, April 21, 2021
