Deutsch: Das System Zermürbung – ein Jahrzehnt Duldung im Lager von The VOICE Update zu Gerstungen
The system of slow destruction - a decade of Duldung in Gerstungen
In the case of two families, Ashkali from Kosovo and Kurds from Syria, the authorities remain cold while risking lives
Hussen was sanctioned many times during the past ten years, that he lived in Germany. One time 40 euro, another time 45, another 118 euro. His crimes? A walk into the wrong direction or a bicycle ride to the wrong part of the small western-thuringian town of Gerstungen.
When he flew from Syria to Germany ten years ago, he did not think a single time about such strange things. Being an activist for the rights of the Kurdish minority in the north of Syria, he faced political persecution. Many of his friends had already disappeared in prison cells without any judgement, broad parts of the Kurdish minority were and are today still living without basic rights.
Germany, which is frequently and loudly intervening worldwide in the name of human rights and rule of law, seemed to be a save refugium for Hussen and his family. With that background, he still cannot understand that nowadays he has to turn around and walk back at certain spots in town, where not any Gerstungen citizen would ever see a border. For ten years now, his freedom of movement is limited to the local administration district of Wartburgkreis. When he applied for a travel permission at the responsible authorities in Bad Salzungen, they simpy answered „Asylum, you want vacation?“
In the case of Gerstungen, the district ends just a short walk away from the Lager and without being marked in any way, the land of Hessen begins. Because Hussen was not aware of this geographic precision, he had to pay a fine already three times. „Disobeying the Residenzpflicht“ that is how this one step too much is officially called. And as if that law alone was not enough of insanity, he had to pay all the fines in cash – although the immigration office does not even allow him to own money. He does not have a working permit, he is not allowed to open a bank account and the little „support“ by the state, 126 euros per month, is only handed out to the refugees in vouchers (Gutscheine).
How he should pay the train tickets for his son's way to school in Eisenach, nobody at the immigration office wanted to explain to him. The money can be reimbursed, but as the authorities say only six months afterwards. The money Hussen had for the tickets was just enough for the very beginning of the school term. Because his son was forcely missing school since then, the headmaster called for a meeting – Hussen rode the 28 kilometres to Eisenach by bicycle. Being very aware of the family's difficult situation, the authorities fined Hussen with 118 Euro shortly after that - because of disobeying the duty of sending his children to school.
The question from where the family of six people gets a little cash for daily expenses like bus tickets, clothes or sanctions from the immigration office, is answered by the 21 year old daughter Hidayat with an embarrassed expression: „Well, collecting returnable bottles.“ She flew from Syria in 2002, two years after her parents, and has since then been sharing a room with her two brothers in the former GDR-barracks located at the outskirts of Gerstungen. If she were allowed to, she would like to become a kindergarten teacher. But this door will remain closed for her.
„Eight years are long“ - it ist difficult for her to wast her time day by day in that rotten building. The atmosphere in the Lager she describes as depressing. The bathrooms are mouldy, the electricity is unstable and cables with high voltage are running openly in the corridors. Every evening, a guard controls the presence of the people counting the pairs of shoes, knocking on the doors and expecting every single person to confirm his presence by answering. In case someone is missing, the Gutscheine are cancelled soon after.
Also, the main worker in the Lager has keys to any room and does not hesitate to enter them when the inhabitants are not there. To the requirements of the refugees she reacts depending on her mood. The fact that a blind man has to live in a single room on his own does not concern her. And on a bad day, she answers the request for a permit to see a doctor simply with „Fuck off!“.
Hussen's wife has been having trouble with her heart for a longer time now. Already some months ago, she asked for a permit to go see a doctor. This request has been ignored until today.
The humiliation and chicane alone that the family had to go through in Germany for a decade by now is a huge psychological stress. Hussen does not see any perspective in his life. Syria is not issuing passports for the Kurdish family, Germany is not giving a permanent residence permit. His youngest daughter was born in Eisenach and currently visits the primary school. She has no idea of Syria.
Hussen has not heard anything from his brother already for four years and he fears that he as well fell victim to the repression by the Syrian authorities. Including the traumatizing experiences before and during the escape from Syria, the current situation, the systematical criminalization of executing basic human rights like freedom of movement, education and physical integrity, is not supportable for any member of the family.
Already many people were housed in Gerstungen. Only few others have lived there as long as Hussen and his family. The family Rexha from Kosovo is one of them. They came to Germany in 1999 during the war in Kosovo, after their house and grocery store got destroyed. Since then, they have lived with the status of Duldung.
The family's father, Ali, had a job with good income for quite some time. He would have been able to care independently from the little state „support“ – and to move to a flat. But despite the promise made by an employee in the local administration, the obligation to live in the Lager was not dissolved. Only his oldest daughter Filoreta is now married and lives in Baden-Württemberg. When she gave birth to a child recently, Ali visited her, but got a fine of 800 euros for disobeying the Residenzpflicht in repeated mode.
„Incredibly inhuman“ the – newly – grandfather calls the federal German extra law for asylum seekers. He describes the circumstances in the Lager as a catastrophy. Before, the former barrack was owned by a private company. Because that one didn't have a check for the building's safety, the Landratsamt bought it and has since then frequently delayed the verification of the building's circumstances. Just recently, some little renovations started. Among others, one reason is the rising resistance on behalf of the refugees, as Ali explains. After he, together with around 30 other people from the Gerstungen Lager, had interrupted an event within the „Week of the foreign citizen“ in order to create awareness of the intolerable situation, the efforts to paint the rotten building in new colours, have been obviously increased.
But already in the action in Bad Salzungen, Ali had declared, that it is not about single cosmetic renovations, but about structural change. This means decentralized housing and abolishing the Residenzpflicht as first steps towards preserving the basic rights of refugees.
The way Ali is treated by the auhtorities has changed since then. Being upset about his public condemnation of the daily discrimination, the state employees are treating him even with more disrespect than before. In a discussion about the action, he invited them to visit him in the Lager in order to verify whether he really had „no reason to complain“, which they didn't have anything to reply to.
Ali confirms that the director of the Lager systematically ignores the requirements and rights of the refugees. Letters are either opened without the presence of the people they are addressed at or are handed out only long after they had arrived in the Lager. For Ali, this had the consequence that he missed several appointments at the Arbeitsamt, which made the authorities shorten his money per month – three times 160 euros. Also, the director refuses to forward his request for decentral housing. Alis wife had fallen ill of pulmonary embolism in the Lager, he himself has diabetes and his youngest daughter has got asthma , which made a doctor write an attestation of the need of urgent change of the housing situation. The 9-years old Gentiona is born in Germany and speaks German better than Albanian.
Family Rexha's fear of being deported is growing. Since Kosovo's independence has been recognized by Germany, many war refugees have been deported. Everytime there was a deportation from Gerstungen, all the inhabitants of the Lager witnessed it. The police comes at night, the lights are switched on, people shout and there is knocking on doors. Until the moment of withdrawal from the Lager, all the people remain in fear of being deported themselves.
For Ali, a return to Kosovo means life danger. He belongs to the ethnic minority of Ashkali, which is just like other minorities being excluded by the major group of Albanians. Since the end of the war, the different parts of the population remain in deep mistrust and bloody actions of revenge because of certain events that happened during the war.
Ali was an UCK-fighter before and he knows all the people that today are in high functions of the young state of Kosovo. He calls them nationalist mafiosi, who continue a violent struggle for power and exclusion. Right these people know him as well. Due to his conception, he would not survive longer than one week in case of a deportation to Kosovo.
He is asking himself over and over, why the authorities do not admit him to live with equal rights in Germany. Er repeats saying that he only wants a chance to prove the administration that he has not trouble finding a job and caring for his family. His only desire is to live in freedom and safety in Germany and to offer his children a better life than he has had.
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https://thevoiceforum.org/node/1829
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