Refugee centre staff in Berlin joked about executing child refugees

Firm claims dismissal is 'politically motivated' and will appeal the decision

Germany has come under strain after 1.1m refugees arrived in the country - mostly Iraq and Syria (Getty Images)

The company responsible for a string of asylum centres in Berlin has been stripped of its contracts after its managers swapped emails joking about using guillotines on children.

Berlin’s social affairs minister Mario Czaja severed ties with Pewobe, which runs nine hostels around the city and is responsible for the welfare of approximately 3,000 asylum seekers, after a series of emails between three managers were printed by a German newspaper.

In one of the emails published by Bild, the company’s general manager appeared to suggest buying a "Kinderguillotine" with money donated by BMW.

The trio then sent each other pictures of guillotines, beheadings and a photoshopped image showing a playground slide ending in an oversized cheese grater with knives at the end.

One then said they would become more energy efficient because they could use the bodies to heat the centres in a “large-volume crematorium”.

Mr Czaja said he was “appalled” by the emails and said the company was “not suitable as an operator of refugee centres in Berlin”. He added that the emails had been given to the secret service.

Christian-Oliver Moser, the lawyer for Pewobe, claimed the emails had been taken out of context.

He said the dismissal was “politically motivated” and they would take all "civil and criminal steps" to appeal against it.

Mr Moser said the correspondence was "personal" and accused Bild of violating the privacy of the managers.

Berlin voluntary groups have also complained about the “catastrophic conditions” at their hostels in the city which were said to be overrun with vermin.

Germany is due to hold local elections next month where Angela Merkel’s Christian Democratic party, to which Mr Czaja belongs, faces a major test after the public turned against the country’s previous open door refugee policy.

Approximately 1.1m people - many of them refugees fleeing from conflict in Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan - arrived in Germany last year.

But an attack on more than 1,000 women in Cologne on New Year’s Eve which was blamed on refugees has put a strain on German goodwill towards migrants.

The far-right Alternative for Germany (Afd) party has made huge gains in recent regional elections while calling for the borders to be closed.