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© AP Photo / Markus Schreiber
Police in Germany have warned that violence in and around asylum centers has threatened to spiral out of control, leaving dozens injured as fights break out between different nationalities and minority ethnic groups.

Amid the deepening European migrant and refugee crisis, violence across Germany is spreading as frustrations reach boiling point in already overcrowded asylum centers.

There has been a series of violent battles in Calden Airport near the city of Kassel, which houses around 1,500 refugees, involving as many as 350 Albanians and Pakistanis, after a series of brawls left around 60 injured.

Violence among migrants and refugees has been reported in Dresden and Leipzig, as well as other centers including Ellwangen in Baden-Württemberg, Suhl in Thuringia, Bramsche in Lower Saxony, Trier in Rhineland-Palatinate and Heidenau in Saxony.

Police in North Rhine-Westphalia have been called to nearly 1,000 incidents in August alone, prompting Rainer Wendt, the head of DPolG, Germany's second-largest police union, to say officers are "facing the greatest challenge in post war history."

Germany migrant asylum seeker
© AP Photo / Grelo BreloerPolice stand next to asylum seekers waiting in front of the reception center for refugees in Berlin, Germany, Friday, Aug. 7, 2015.
Many are now calling on migrants and refugees to be separated according to their religion, with interior minister Thomas de Maizière calling the behavior "unacceptable".

Anti-Refugee Demonstrations

The violence comes amid growing protests in Germany against the mass immigration, which is expected to reach a million people by the end of the year. 2,500 people gathered in Sebnitz in the east of Saxony, bordering the Czech Republic, to form a "living border" in a protest organized by the Pegida (Patriotic Europeans Against the Islamization of the West) movement, which is strongest in the Saxon capital, Dresden.

That followed a silent march involving 1,000 people through Chemnitz, the third largest city in Saxony. There was a demonstration in Dresden involving 4,000 people on Monday, amid growing anger at Germany's willingness to take in refugees.

In the state of Thuringia, there has been a spate of arson attacks on hostels housing refugees. An accommodations center in the Gotha district was set on fire as was a gym that was due to take in refugees. Other fires have been reported in other states, including Eichsfeld in Lower Saxony, and Xanten in North Rhine-Westphalia.

The unrest continues as the latest opinion poll for public broadcaster ARD shows 51 percent of people saying they were "afraid" because of the influx of refugees, compared with 38 percent three weeks ago.