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Germany in a state of SIEGE: Merkel was cheered when she opened the floodgates to migrants. Now, with gangs of men roaming the streets and young German women being told to cover up, the mood's changing
- Thousands of economic migrants are posing as refugees to reach Europe
- David Cameron said this week that Europe must said failed asylum claimants back to their countries
- Demands for Germany's 'open doors and windows' policy to be scrapped
- Women said rape and child abuse were rife in Giessen's refugee camp
PUBLISHED: 18:27 EST, 25 September 2015 | UPDATED: 19:29 EST, 25 September 2015
On the busy shopping street in Giessen, a German university town twinned with Winchester, migrant Atif Zahoor tucks into a chicken dish with his brother and cousin at the curry restaurant Chillie To Go.
They have left good jobs back in Karachi, Pakistan, and now want to be Europeans.
In late July the three slipped into Germany with their wives and children, using illegal documents. They live together in a five-bedroom house, rented for them by Chancellor Angela Merkel’s government, a 40-minute drive away from Giessen, which is home to the biggest migrants’ camp in the country.
Migrants and refugees pictured waiting for a bus outside the Migrant Receiving Camp on the outskirts of the German city of Giessen. Social workers and women's groups warned that facilities were hopelessly inadequate and security was a problem for female residents
Migrants and refugees queue at the compound outside the Berlin Office of Health and Social Affairs as they wait for their registration. But there are warnings that millions more newcomers should be expected in the current migrant crisis
‘We paid a trafficking agent for false visas to fly here to Germany,’ says 34-year-old Atif. ‘We claimed asylum and came to Giessen camp with other migrants. Three weeks ago, because we had families, they gave us a proper home.’
Atif is well-dressed and speaks perfect English. He used to be a transport manager at Karachi airport and is from a well-to-do family. Between mouthfuls of curry, he adds: ‘But there is violence between political gangs in Karachi. Lots of people are leaving for Europe. The trafficker decided that Germany was the place for us because it is welcoming refugees.’
"There is violence between political gangs in Karachi. Lots of people are leaving for Europe."
Atif, 34, from Pakistan
Atif, 34, from Pakistan
Yet the raw truth is that Atif is not fleeing war or persecution. He is one of thousands of economic migrants getting into Germany as the EU’s immigration crisis grows bigger each day.
This week, David Cameron said Europe must send failed asylum claimants back to their own countries, while European Council president Donald Tusk has warned that millions more migrants are on their way and ‘the policy of open doors and windows’ must be scrapped.
They are tough words, but it’s action that is needed. As Jens Spahn, a deputy finance minister in Chancellor Merkel’s government, said this week: ‘Not everyone can stay in Germany, or in Europe. If people are coming for poverty reasons... we have to send them back.’
Mrs Merkel’s offer last month to accept all refugees from war-ravaged Syria opened the floodgates. More than a million migrants are expected this year alone, the bulk of them far from genuine asylum seekers. There is now deepening disquiet in this Christian country, dotted with churches, that it is being overwhelmed by people of a different religion and culture.
Refugees from Afghanistan and Pakistan inside a tent shared by more than 60 men at the refugee registration center for the German state of Hesse in Giessen, 40km southwest of Frankfurt
David Cameron said Europe must send failed asylum claimants back to their own countries, while European Council president Donald Tusk has warned that millions more migrants are on their way and ‘the policy of open doors and windows’ must be scrapped
Yesterday, the Mail reported how social workers and women’s groups in Giessen wrote a letter to the local state parliament claiming that rape and child abuse were rife in the refugee camp. The allegations were corroborated by Atif over his curry. ‘The camp is dangerous,’ he agreed. ‘Men of different nationalities fight and women are attacked.’
"Many women have felt the need to sleep in their clothes... they won’t go to the toilet at night because rapes and assaults have taken place on their way to, or from, there. "
Letter written by social workers and women's groups in the Giessen camp
Letter written by social workers and women's groups in the Giessen camp
The letter says the camp, far from being a peaceful haven for those fleeing war, is a dangerous melting-pot, where there have been ‘numerous rapes and sexual assaults, and forced prostitution’.
There are even reports of children being raped and subjected to sexual assault, it adds.
‘Many women have felt the need to sleep in their clothes... they won’t go to the toilet at night because rapes and assaults have taken place on their way to, or from, there. Even in daylight, a walk through the camp is fraught with fear.’
Controversially, the letter suggests that in the migrants’ culture, women are viewed differently: ‘It is a fact that women and children are unprotected. This situation is opportune for those men who already regard women as their inferiors and treat unaccompanied women as “fair game”.’
Many migrant women have fled here to escape forced marriages or female genital mutilation, which are rife in some African and Middle Eastern countries. ‘They believe they have found safety in Germany,’ says the letter, ‘and realise it’s not the case.’
Turkish volunteers living in Berlin give away water bottles and snacks to migrants and refugees queuing at the compound outside the Berlin Office of Health and Social Affairs
[video in original]
A 19-year-old waitress at a coffee bar in the town tells me: ‘We saw them [the migrants] walking around and they saw us. Of course, we were worried. We were told to be extra careful when they were here.’
A local politician, who refuses to be named, is quoted in Die Welt, one of the most respected German newspapers: ‘These Muslim teenage boys come from a culture where for women it is frowned upon to show naked skin.
"These Muslim teenage boys come from a culture where for women it is frowned upon to show naked skin."
Unnamed local politician
Unnamed local politician
'They will follow girls and bother them without realising it is not acceptable. Naturally, their behaviour generates fear.’
At yet another migrant camp in Detmold, a city in central Germany, a 13-year-old Muslim girl was raped by a fellow migrant. The child and her mother had fled to Europe to escape a ‘culture of sexual violence’ in their own country.
Astonishingly, police kept silent about the rape, which took place in June. Only this month, after a local newspaper revealed that it had happened — and claimed German authorities are not ‘going public’ about crimes involving migrants because they don’t want to ‘give legitimacy’ to critics of mass migration — did they confirm it had taken place.
The area’s police chief, Bernd Flake, insists the official silence was meant to protect the rape victim. But he adds: ‘We will continue this policy (of not informing the public) whenever crimes are committed in migrant facilities.’
A young refugee waits at the rail station in Freilassing, southern Germany. The country now expects to welcome up to a million newcomers
Refugees rest in a former furniture factory after crossing the border from Austria in Freilassing, southern Germany. EU leaders have pledged at least 1 billion euros ($1.1 billion) for Syrian refugees in the Middle East
Meanwhile, the migrants keep arriving. Many have deliberately thrown away their passports on their journey through Europe, so they can pretend to be Syrian refugees rather than economic migrants.
The authorities, now being urged by both the EU and Germany’s leaders to return those who aren’t genuine, are completely overwhelmed.
At Freilassing, on the border with Austria, I see hundreds of migrants waiting in teeming rain to reach Mrs Merkel’s promised land. Wrapped in see-through charity macs, they queue excitedly for soup. Most have travelled for weeks, from Turkey by boat to Greece, then via Macedonia, Serbia and Croatia to Austria.
‘We are nearly there,’ says Arun Ari, 27, grinning. He comes from the Syrian town of Kobane, where Kurdish fighters have been battling Islamic State for two years.
He seems a deserving refugee among so many who are not, yet won’t show me his identity papers.
Deserving or not, he faces a tough future. Arun will be processed in one of the camps set up all over Germany in former military bases, school gymnasiums, sports halls, even a former monastery. Yet, just like him, almost every male migrant I meet is optimistic.
Outside the Bayernkaserne camp, for instance, I meet Ali, who arrived eight days ago via Greece. He used to be a travel agent in Lahore, the cultural capital of Pakistan.
‘When I lost my job, I set out with six friends,’ he says. ‘There is every nation in the camp — a lot from Pakistan, like me. I chose Germany because they want us here.’
I dare not tell Ali this is not entirely true. Unless he is lucky, he won’t be given refugee status, as he is an economic migrant.
It is the same story when I meet Janaid Jamshad, a 25-year-old former student.
"When I lost my job, I set out with six friends. There is every nation in the camp — a lot from Pakistan, like me. I chose Germany because they want us here."
Ali, from Pakistan Also from Lahore, he has been here for ten days. ‘I came to Germany first in 2013 and they pushed me out again,’ he says with a laugh. ‘I came back when I heard Mrs Merkel was opening the doors. I have claimed asylum and they are processing my application. Because I am young, I hope they will take me.’
Not that everything is rosy for him now. ‘The camp is overflowing,’ he says. ‘I have just been to the doctor in the shopping centre because I have a headache. Even there, there are queues of migrants waiting. The doctors at the camp will only give one pill at a time. So we find other places for medical help, and pay for it.’
Back in the Giessen curry house, I continue talking to asylum claimant Atif. ‘We think having children will help us,’ he says. ‘Our house is very big, and they give us money, too.’
I point out that Karachi, despite the political violence there, is not in a war zone.
He still hopes to persuade the authorities he is a genuine refugee, though, and hopes he won’t be returned to Pakistan because he now has no official national identity — in a deal with the smuggling gang, he handed them his own passport and those of his family when they arrived in Germany. They were the ‘payment’ in exchange for the family’s fake visas and will be used again to smuggle more customers into Europe.
‘My children deserve a better life than in Pakistan,’ says Atif. ‘They will grow up happy in Germany.’
