“A few years ago it started with theft. If the police picked them up then, they were certainly still afraid, but in the case of petty crime, the public prosecutor quickly says: let them go free. So they always go a step further,” said El Hajaiji.
“First it becomes theft with violence, then assault, then drug trafficking. And if they are then arrested, they get an order to leave the territory, but the police can do nothing else. It is almost as if there is a kind of competition in the streets to collect as many orders to leave the country as possible.”