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Iraqi refugees turn to Germany for safety
10.9.2007
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September
10, 2007
BERLIN, Germany, -- For Ali and Khaled, two
Iraqi refugees who arrived here illegally, Germany
is a dream come true, though to date
they have seen little of it and the prospects for
them being allowed to stay are bleak.
“Germany is a thousand times better than Iraq,” says
Khaled, a 20-year-old Yazidi Kurd who arrived 14
months ago, by way of Turkey, hidden in the back of
a truck.
Ali, also 20, has been here for six years. He has
learnt German, but along with Khaled, still lives in
a hostel in southern Berlin where refugees are two
to a room with little to occupy them.
They are neither allowed to work, nor leave the
greater Berlin area.
Ali and Khaled — neither is willing to give his real
name for fear of what might happen to those left
back home — dream of settling in Germany for good.
But they have to make do with temporary permits,
renewed every six months.
They receive free accommodation at the hostel, along
with $272 a month to feed themselves.
Once a month, Ali spends 10 minutes on the phone
talking with his family in Baghdad.
They sent him away under Saddam Hussein’s regime so
he would not have to serve in the military. Now they
just hope he will get a permanent residence permit
to allow him to work and, maybe, bring over his
relatives.
In the meantime, “it’s very boring. There’s nothing
to do. And we can’t even leave town,” says Ali.
Even getting into town can be difficult as public
transportation is expensive. Ali says he has never
cheated on the underground for fear of being caught,
something which would lead to a criminal prosecution
and a black mark on his asylum application. Khaled
is from one of the villages in northern Iraq where
some 400 people were killed by truck bombs in
August.
He won’t say why he left, but explains that his
father lives in constant fear. “Problems, problems,”
he adds in broken German.
The Iraqi community in Germany numbers about 75,000,
with most having arrived before the 2003 US-led
liberation of their country.
But many only have temporary residence permits, and
the German government has started issuing letters
warning those who arrived when Saddam was still in
power, that they will have to leave as their country
now has a new democratic government.
In May however, Berlin decided to grant temporary
asylum to new categories of Iraqi refugees,
including those from religious minorities and those
from the greater Baghdad region who have been forced
out of their homes by violence.
“This decision is due to the deteriorating situation
in Iraq, especially for religious minorities
including Christians, Mandeans and Yazidis,”
according to Tatjana Bauer, spokeswoman at the
German office for immigration.
As a result, “some 85 per cent of the 1,682 Iraqis
who asked for asylum between May and August were
allowed to stay,” she added.
In 2006, Germany granted just 8.3 per cent of Iraqi
asylum demands, according to the ministry.
Iraq now tops the list of countries whose citizens
are seeking asylum in Europe, according to the UN
High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).
Last year, 19,240 Iraqis applied for asylum in the
European Union, nearly half of them in Sweden,
according to official figures collected by the UNHCR.
But numbers have been going up this year and refugee
agencies expect the total number to have at least
doubled by the end of the year.
In Germany, 3,812 Iraqis asked for asylum over the
same period. In Denmark, some 200 arrived this
summer thanks to the Danish government.
They were Iraqis who had been employed by Danish
forces in southern Iraq and were evacuated ahead of
the withdrawal of Danish troops from Basra for fear
they might be a target for reprisals.
In Britain, a Home Office spokesman expressed
concern for Iraqis who have worked for the British
armed forces in southern Iraq.
“The total number of Iraqis who have worked for us
since 2003 with a claim to assistance could be at
least 15,000. We therefore need to consider the
options carefully,” he added.
AFP
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