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The unrest at the shelter in the southern town of Ellwangen has been seized upon by politicians to highlight the difficulties Germany faces in integrating the more than 1.6 million migrants, who have arrived since 2014.
Police said that it arrested a handful of individuals suspected of drug offenses during the raid and moved 17 residents out of the hostel. The hostel is home to many asylum seekers, especially Africans.
Three people and one police officer were slightly hurt during the raid, said a medical team spokesman.
Officers also found the 23-year-old Togolese man, whom they had been trying to deport on Monday, police said. No weapons were found during the operation, which started at dawn.
On Monday, police said that they were forced to release the Togolese man due for deportation, when around 150 residents of the hostel surrounded and threatened them, and damaged one of their cars.
Many politicians praised the police and said that German law must be adhered to. Some on the right said that the clashes showed that the influx of migrants has led to a collapse in law and order.
German authorities are still wading through a backlog of asylum cases, a result of Chancellor Angela Merkel’s 2015 open-door migrant policy, which subsequently has decreased hers and her party’s popularity in last year’s election.
The far-right Alternative for Germany, which scored nearly 13 percent in the election and is the main opposition to the current government, said that this raid is just the beginning.
