A failed asylum seeker from Mali has been accused of brutally murdering a 33-year-old Romanian prostitute in the German city of Regensburg by strangling her to death.

The 21-year-old failed asylum seeker was arrested earlier this week after the 33-year-old Romanian was found dead last Wednesday in her apartment in the eastern part of Regensburg.

Authorities say the Malian migrant is almost certainly the murderer as he was found in possession of the phone of the victim when taken into custody, broadcaster Bayerische Rundfunk reports.

A spokesman for the Regensburg police said that the motive for the crime was theft and say that the asylum seeker strangled the 33-year-old to death in order to cover his tracks.

“He wanted money from her, and after she screamed, he strangled her with his hands until she stopped screaming, then took her things, took the mobile phone, and then left the apartment,” said Chief Inspector Stefan Halder.

The Malian man came to Germany without any form of identification in March of this year and despite failing to achieve refugee status, authorities have been unable to deport him. Even if convicted of murder, it is unlikely that he will be deported.

The case is not the first time a failed asylum seeker has committed murder in Germany. Earlier this year, an Afghan failed asylum seeker is said to have brutally murdered a five-year-old girl at an asylum home in Bavaria before later being shot by police.

Asylum Seeker Shot by Police After Stabbing Five-Year-Old to Death https://t.co/ZVMQghA03t — Breitbart London (@BreitbartLondon) June 6, 2017

The incident caused controversy in Germany after it was revealed that the 41-year-old had attempted to kill his ex-wife and cousin by committing arson and was made to wear an ankle monitor whilst living in the asylum home. He had also converted to Christianity raising a debate on whether migrants were converting to avoid deportation.

In Austria, an American au pair was also the victim of murder by a failed asylum seeker last year. The 24-year-old Gambian killed the young woman after she had invited him into her apartment to hide him from authorities who were attempting to carry out his deportation.

Later in the year, another illegal immigrant from Africa bludgeoned a 54-year-old woman to death on her way to work in the Austrian capital. The 21-year-old Kenyan migrant had come to the city in 2008, overstayed his visa, and refused to leave the country.