Germany foils anti-migrant arson plot as hostility mounts

German officials said Thursday they had foiled an extremist plot to torch migrant shelters, adding to concerns over rising attacks on refugees in Europe as migrant arrivals hit new records.

 Police in the southern German town of Bamberg arrested 13 members of a far-right movement suspected of planning to set fire to two homes for asylum seekers, prosecutors said.

 The UN's rights chief, meanwhile, accused the Czech Republic of systematically detaining migrants in "degrading" conditions, as part of a policy to dissuade them from entering the central European country.

 As hostility towards the migrants and refugees streaming into Europe grows, reports emerged of fresh assaults on boats carrying migrants from Turkey to Greece in the Aegan Sea.

 Masked gunmen in speedboats rammed several rubber dinghies and stole their motor in early October, Human Rights Watched said Thursday, echoing similar incidents reported by migrants and rights groups in recent months.

 Greece called on the European Union for an additional at least 330 million euros ($374 million) next year to cope with the influx of newcomers fleeing war and poverty in places like Syria and Iraq.

 Slovenia, which has become the latest hotspot in the crisis, reported a record number of arrivals over a 24-hour period. The EU's top migration official Dimitris Avramopoulos paid a visit there Thursday.

 But Germany remains the preferred destination for many migrants and faces a backlash over Chancellor Angela Merkel's open-door policy as it braces for up to a million asylum requests this year.

 During July, August and September, there were 285 attacks on migrant centres across Germany -- more than the entire number in 2014, which stood at 198 offences, Germany's Federal Criminal Police Office said.

 Police swooped on Bamberg late Wednesday, arresting 11 men and two women whom they said were members of both a far-right movement and a criminal gang that was planning attacks on migrants, prosecutors said.

 And in Sweden, a masked man with reported far-right sympathies killed a teacher and a student in a sword attack on a school that hosts many newly-arrived migrants. It was not immediately clear whether he meant to target migrants.

 Europe has been struggling to find a unified response on how to tackle its biggest migration crisis since World War II.

 More than 600,000 people, mainly fleeing violence in Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan, have braved the dangerous sea journey to Europe so far this year.

 Of these, over 3,000 have drowned or gone missing in the Mediterranean.