Merkel backs expelling refugees with suspended sentences too

"Of the 31 suspects whose names are known, 18 have asylum seeker status", interior ministry spokesman Tobias Plate told reporters on Friday, citing federal police figures, according to BBC News.

The suspects include nine Algerians, eight Moroccans, four Syrians, five Iranians, two Germans and one each from the US.

As outrage grew over the assaults, which included two alleged rapes and several accounts of groping during New Year's Eve festivities in Cologne, Merkel said citizens were right to raise serious questions.

One of the men arrested in the shocking mass sex attacks against women on New Years" Eve in Cologne was carrying a vile note with translations of phrases like "I want to have sex with you' in German and Arabic, it has been reported. He said items which could constitute evidence were found and confiscated from both individuals, without providing details.

It is thought that a group of Arab and/or African-looking men were behind the "mob attacks" during the New Year's celebration.

She also suggested what happened New Year's Eve may be symptomatic of a broader problem with regards to endangering women.

Separately, police claim to have identified a total of 34 suspects, 21 of whom are asylum seekers, with majority being recent arrivals.

At a separate left-wing protest, more than 2,000 mostly women gathered close to the train station where numerous attacks, including muggings and sexual assaults, happened.

In Cologne, where most of the attacks took place, a police spokesman confirmed Chief Wolfgang Albers was sacked Friday.

"My confidence in the Cologne police leadership has been deeply shaken based on the information I now have available", Reker said in a statement.

Standing next to Julia Kloeckner, the party's candidate seeking the re-election of a CDU-led government in the state of Rhineland-Palatinate, Merkel said leaders meeting at the retreat on the Rhine river stood by her position from last month's party congress on refugees, including the rejection of a limit on migrants. An official press release on New Year's Day had described the event as "peaceful". We must do this for us - and for the many refugees who were not part of the events in Cologne.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel has proposed that asylum seekers on probation or who committed any kind of crime should be sent back to their countries of origin.

Police are investigating seven criminal complaints of sexual assault, including the case of three women who were surrounded by 10 men and "massively" groped.

Anti-immigration campaigners have seized on the Cologne incident as an example of what they see as the failure of the country's asylum policy.

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