A study conducted by the German Federal Police (BKA) on migrant crime has found that African asylum seekers are far more prone to criminality than their Middle Eastern counterparts.

The study shows that migrants from countries which are far less likely to receive a positive asylum claim are also far more likely to engage in crime while in the country, Stuttgarter Zeitung reports.

Tunisian migrants, who make up just 0.2 per cent of recognised asylum seekers since 2015, account for 2.2 per cent of crimes committed by recognised asylum seekers. The statistics are even more dramatic for Moroccans who account for a mere one per cent of asylum seekers yet are 7.6 per cent of asylum seeker suspects.

Rainer Wendt, head of the German police union, said that the reason for the higher rates of criminality is that migrants who have less of a chance of gaining asylum or residency status have “nothing to lose”.

Syrians, Afghans, and Iraqis, who make up around 62 per cent of recognised asylum seekers, account for 34 per cent of crimes in which asylum seekers are suspects with their most common crimes being physical assault, shoplifting, and drug offences.

In some cities like Berlin, asylum seekers have become more and more active in the local street drug scene after being recruited, often from their asylum homes, by gangs with migrant backgrounds. In some areas, police have said that migrants are totally taking over the drug scene, often using violence.

Over 2,000 Germans March Against Mass Migration in City Experiencing Wave of Migrant Crime https://t.co/M4Z6HvCR77 — Breitbart London (@BreitbartLondon) February 7, 2018

Between January and September of 2017, 70 people were murdered by asylum seekers, 45 of them being asylum seekers themselves. One of the most infamous cases occurred in the city of Kandel in which a 15-year-old girl was stabbed to death by an asylum seeker who had dated the girl.

“Single young men are more prone to committing crimes. It’s the same everywhere. Studies also show that in every country in the world, male 14- to 30-year-olds are clearly over-represented in violent crime,” Police union head Rainer Wendt said.

Since the height of the migrant crisis in 2015, Germany has seen a dramatic increase in young migrant men, often claiming to be underage, though many have later been proven to be adults.