German city bans migrants from its nightclubs after women report they were sexually assaulted in toilets and slipped date-rape drugs in their drinks

Erstveröffentlicht: 
26.01.2016
  • Women 'made complaints' to managers of nightclubs in Freiburg, Germany
  • Claims some women were fed date-rape drugs and accosted in club toilets
  • Some of Freiburg's nightspots are said to have enforced a blanket ban
  • Town's welfare and social services leader called the move 'discrimination'
  • See more of the latest news on the sexual assaults across Germany 

 

By Allan Hall In Berlin for MailOnline

 

A German university city with a Green party migrant-supporting administration has banned refugees from several nightclubs following complaints from females of sexual harassment and theft.

Women have allegedly complained to managers of clubs in Freiburg, southwest Germany, about being fed date-rape drugs and being accosted in toilets.

Another woman claimed she had been raped while a bouncer was allegedly stabbed by a migrant.

 

One club now issues special cards to foreigners in which they are allowed entry only if they agree to reject 'violence, sexism and discrimination.' Other nightspots have apparently enforced a blanket ban.

According to local media reports, the problem extends to six discos in the town.

'No more entry for asylum seekers,' was the headline in the weekend edition of the newspaper Badische Zeitung.

Freiburg's welfare and social services leader Ulrich von Kirchbach warned: 'It is discrimination. One cannot rule out a whole group of people like this.'

He said most of the 3,000 asylum seekers in the town on the border with Switzerland behaved themselves and that a few 'black sheep' can be found anywhere.

 

Police spokeswoman Laura Riske said that the police in town were not aware of sexual assaults in the clubs.

'There are always thefts,' she added, but the ethnic background of the perpetrators is largely unknown.

'The operators of these establishments have authority over who they do and do not let in,' she added, but warned that blanket bans on all refugees would be illegal under law.

The management of one music club, the White Rabbit, issued a statement last week saying: 'We have decided that, for time being, we will not allow into the club people who possess only a temporary residence permit' - the paperwork issued to refugees while their claims of asylum are processed.'

 

It added: 'This is not an easy thing to do but we see no other way as currently we are experiencing problems with refugees.'

But the club has since issued the cards for those refugees willing to renounce violence and sexism.

One woman, aged 46, told the Badische Zeitung she had been in the White Rabbit in December when a large group of African men had come and 'bothered' guests.

'I was surrounded and marginalised while dancing,' she said. 'The situation was full of male violence. I felt threatened.'

On that night two bouncers eject five men from the premises for harassing another woman who complained she had to run a 'gauntlet' of men on the club stairs.

Dietmar Ganzmann, operator of the El.Pi student disco, said he had decided only to allow a certain number of refugees entrance on any given night, and no more.

'We traditionally have a tough door policy,' he said.

At the Jazz House club owner Michael Musiol said: 'We prided ourselves on being a cosmpolitan club. But we cannot always run it so. The claim and the harsh reality diverge here.'

Peter Bitsch, operator of the discotheque Kagan, confirmed that many women no longer feel safe in the clubs when there are large numbers of migrants in them.