In 2014, Germany took in roughly 30 percent of the total number of asylum claims in the European Union. Sean Gallup / Getty Images

NEUHARDENBERG, Germany – In the past few years, Germany received more asylum applications than any other Western country, by far.

Still, despite this comparatively welcoming enviroment, where 202,815 new asylum seekers registered in 2014 - with another 400,000 applications anticipated this year, there's been an uptick in anti-immigrant attacks in the country.

The dramatic rise of asylum seekers – most of which come from Middle East and Africa – has been followed by growing trend of xenophobic attacks targeting non-European migrants. In 2014, there were 150 attacks by right wing extremists in Germany on accommodations of asylum seekers – triple the number of such incidents in the previous year, and more than six times the total attacks in 2012.

The trend has continued in 2015, most notably with an arson attack against an accommodation dormitory for asylum-seekers in Troglitz, and the torching of a meeting point for refugees in Berlin. There have been 25 attacks cases of assault and physical injury against refugees in the first four months of the year, according to the Amadeu Antonio Foundation and Pro Asyl, two NGOs that collaborate to keep track of violent displays of right wing extremists in Germany.

In May, following a community soccer tournament in the rural town of Neuhardenberg, a group of local young men targeted the team of asylum seekers who had also taken part in the competition.

"When we went out of the field, they shouted at us and threw bananas at us," recalled Rashid Ahmed, an asylum seeker from Somalia, who lives in Neuhardenberg – population 3000, located 60 miles east of Berlin – and was part of the asylum-seekers’ soccer team.

Throwing of bananas at people is a form racist expression that could be seen in soccer stadiums throughout Europe, often directed at black players. And the Neuhardenberg attack did not end there. One of Ahmed’s teammates was kicked in the back, and the attackers threatened to come to the asylum-seekers’ dormitories to continue the fight. Police investigation later confirmed the xenophobic background of the incident, and suspects were detected.

The 26-year old Ahmed, who lives with his wife in state-provided dormitory housing on the outskirts of Neuhardenberg, fled to Europe in 2013 because of the civil war in his native country. Ahmed is one of tens of thousands of people who entered the European Union via the dangerous and often deadly sea journey from Libya to Italy, on board smuggling boats.

He said he chose not to stay in Italy – where anti-Muslim sentiments are high and there are plenty of integration obstacles. The attack at the end of the Neuhardenberg’s community soccer tournament was his first time experiencing xenophobia in Germany, a country he has found to be friendly and welcoming.

"I felt very angry and disappointed," Ahmed told Al Jazeera America. “I decided not to go play football again because maybe it will happen again.”