DAVID GREENE, HOST:
The mood in Germany, which has been so welcoming to migrants, is changing now. On New Year's Eve, groups of young men assaulted women in Cologne and other German cities. And some of the suspects are recent migrants from North Africa. In Dusseldorf last weekend, police launched a huge raid on a largely North African neighborhood looking for gangs of petty criminals. All of this is leading many longtime immigrants from North Africa feeling stigmatized, and they are speaking out. NPR's Soraya Sarhaddi Nelson reports from Dusseldorf.
UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN: Departure 15. Fifteen...
SORAYA SARHADDI NELSON, BYLINE: Steps from Dusseldorf's main train station is the city's so-called Maghreb quarter, named for the part of Northwest Africa that includes Tunisia, Algeria and Morocco. German police suspect the neighborhood of being a hub for gangs of thieves and pickpockets and more recently predators who grope and harass their female victims. It is here where 300 police officers raided coffee shops and other popular hangouts last Saturday night in what they called Operation Casablanca. The six-hour raid led to 40 people being arrested, most on suspicion of being in Germany illegally. Within the Maghreb quarter, many residents who've lived here for decades say they feel their reputations were destroyed in one night. Elders like Husaian Fannoua who runs a travel agency agree that crime and sexual harassment here are on the rise.
HUSAIAN FANNOUA: (Foreign language spoken).
NELSON: But the Moroccan native who immigrated to Germany 57 years ago says the raid was badly handled and that given the widespread media coverage, it tarnished their community.
FANNOUA: (Through interpreter) They pulled people out of cafes or stores like animals and made such a scene. It was so bad. What are our German neighbors going to think about us?
NELSON: Many German politicians have been loudly calling for the deportation of all North African asylum seekers. Police have blamed migrants for widespread sexual assaults that occurred in several big German cities on New Year's Eve. Fannoua says they forget most of us here are citizens who can vote. At one of the neighborhood's more popular restaurants, Moroccan-born owner Badr Haddad says he also feels the backlash from the new, acerbic portrayal of North Africans across Germany.
BADR HADDAD: (Foreign language spoken).
NELSON: Haddad, who moved here 13 years ago to attend university, says he was out last weekend at a bar in the old town where he began chatting with a young German woman. She asked him where he was from, and when he told her, Haddad says she became frightened and stepped back.
HADDAD: (Foreign language spoken).
NELSON: Haddad says that kind of reaction is just not acceptable. It's why he and other business owners and Maghreb community leaders say they are demanding city and police officials as well as the German media help end the stigmatization of North Africans. They are also launching an outreach program in the Maghreb quarter this weekend to teach newcomers about German culture and laws, especially on how to interact with women.
HADDAD: (Foreign language spoken).
RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST:
Haddad says, "it's normal for a German woman and Moroccan like me to stand together and just talk. But there are boundaries, and some of the new migrants just don't get that." Despite the neighborhood's outrage, Dusseldorf police defend the operation.
ANDREAS CZOGALLA: (Foreign language spoken).
MONTAGNE: Police spokesman Andreas Czogalla points to the 69 women who came forward to accuse the foreign gangs of groping them here on New Year's Eve. As to the 40 people arrested in the raid last Saturday night, he says they were mostly asylum seekers, and once they showed their documents, they were released. Soraya Sarhaddi Nelson, NPR News, Dusseldorf.