WorldBERLIN, Reuters -Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump ignored the facts with his assertion that German Chancellor Angela Merkel's open-door refugee policy had resulted in a huge increase in crime, a German minister told Reuters on Tuesday. "In short, Hillary Clinton wants to be America's Angela Merkel and you know what a disaster this massive immigration has been to Germany and the people of Germany," Trump said. Statistics compiled by the German Interior Ministry showed the number of crimes reported in 2015 - excluding visa violations and other immigration violations - remained essentially unchanged from the previous year at 5.9 million. "I'm sorry that the Republican presidential candidate trumpets out things like that without any factual basis," Roth said. Roth said Germany remained a peaceful country where people treated each other with respect, and efforts continued to integrate the refugees into the broader society and economy.

Source: Sunday Times August 16, 2016 13:30 UTC