When volunteers hand out apples and bananas, scuffles break out. Some climb on top of barricades to get a better view while others lie out on the grass surrounded by suitcases and plastic bags which hold their few possessions.
#Landesamt fuer gesundheit und soziales registration
The 26-year-old former chef is one of the hundreds of migrants who crowd around a small screen at the registration office every day, desperately waiting for their number to come up so they can go inside and get a certificate that is the first step in the asylum process. It is the work of the next decade, but it has to start now.Hundreds of migrants wait for to register at Berlin's central registration center for refugees and asylum seekers LaGeSo (Landesamt fuer Gesundheit und Soziales) State Office for Health and Social Affairs in Berlin, Germany October 1, 2015. The majority of them are fleeing from terrorism, radicalism, and Islamism, but if we don’t make real offers of integration, they will become disappointed, frustrated, and open to hate. “This situation where have nothing to do, no money, cannot move out of the camps, are not allowed to work will create problems for the future. “It depends on how we make an offer of integration,” Jäkel concluded, noting the German government’s past failure to assimilate guest workers from Turkey. Just last month Angela Merkel warned about “young people who come from countries where hatred of Israel and Jews is widespread.” The treatment of LGBTQ refugees suggests that homophobia and transphobia will also present a challenge. “We also had reports of interpreters quitting their jobs the moment they found out the person they’re translating for is gay.” Since they are privy to conversations that are supposed to be private, within the shelters, interpreters sometimes betray the confidence of LGBTQ asylum seekers.Īfter the wave of sexual assaults perpetrated against women in Cologne on New Year’s Eve, reportedly by young men from North Africa, some members of minority communities in Germany are concerned about the values and prejudices new refugees may bring with them from their countries of origin. It’s not important,’ ” when evidently it is absolutely vital that queer refugees identify themselves to government authorities, Jäkel said. They will say: ‘You don’t have to tell him you are gay. “Sometimes, interpreters don’t know the right words for LGBT, or they don’t like gay or trans people. Jäkel’s organization has also heard of problems with homophobic security staff and interpreters who don’t care about the safety of LGBTQ refugees.
One refugee was strangled, lost consciousness, and almost died. We have reports of people being spat on, called ugly words, or beaten,” he told me. “There is violence if people come out or are recognized as LGBT. They are small worlds, where people are unoccupied most of the time, and rumors and gossip spread quickly.
When I met with Schwulenberatung Berlin’s Stephen Jäkel in late January, he explained the risks queer refugees face in shelters. The volume of applications means asylum requests are being processed more slowly than usual or become lost in the system, and refugees aren’t being resettled in private housing as quickly. Berlin is currently home to 150 shelters sports halls and sites not fit for purpose, such as Tempelhof Airport, have been converted into refugee camps. But in 2015, more than 1 million refugees entered Germany, overwhelming Berlin’s State Office for Health and Social Affairs (Landesamt für Gesundheit und Soziales, or LaGeSo), which is responsible for the welfare and resettlement of asylum seekers. Under normal circumstances, refugees who claim asylum in Germany would be able to move into private accommodation three months after entering a government-run shelter. The problems being experienced by LGBTQ refugees first came to the attention of Schwulenberatung Berlin-a counseling center for LGBTQ people, including queer refugees, which is based in the city’s Charlottenburg neighborhood-18 months ago. Berlin’s first center for queer refugees will open next month, helping 120 of the German capital’s estimated 3,500 LGBTQ asylum seekers, mostly gay men and transgender people, to resettle outside the shelter system, where they are vulnerable to abuse and mistreatment.