Friday, December 27, 2013
After crossing numerous hurdles to reach
Europe, many refugees from
Africa
think their arrival on European soil is the end to their struggles.
They soon realise that many more challenges still lie ahead.
20 year-old Sara Mohamed sits in a class with ten other young refugees.
Today's lesson is German. Wearing a long, dark headscarf, Sara jokes,
laughs heartily and gives the correct answer to questions posed by the
teacher. Looking at her, you would not know what she has been through to
be in Germany today. At the age of 15 Sara left her home country Somalia to embark on a long and dangerous journey.
"I was very young and it was very hard for me but it is also
sometimes an experience that one has to go through," she told DW. She
said she took the decision to leave her home country because of the
insecurity there.
In 1991 a civil war broke out in Somalia after the country's long serving military government
was overthrown. Insurgents and terrorists wreaked havoc, causing many
Somalis to fear for their lives and seek a new life elsewhere, despite
the risks.
One of the lucky ones
Sara travelled through Sudan and the Sahara desert and then boarded a
boat in Libya with over 150 other refugees. She did not have enough
money for the fare but was helped by other refugees from Somalia. Their
destination was Europe.
The boat carrying Sara and the others made it to Lampedusa, the small
island off the coast of Italy that is the destination for thousands of
refugees every year. Sara is thankful that she made it to the shore
unlike the many others who perish in the attempt.
"There were people I know and who used to sit near me in the Sahara
and in Libya and these people took other boats but died on the way. It
is a very dangerous journey," she told DW.
In October 2013, more than 360 refugees died when their fishing boat
capsized off the shore of Lampedusa - many of them Somalis and
Eritreans. Sick and without money, Sara lived on the streets in Italy
until she made her way through Sweden and on to Germany. She now lives
in a youth home in Munich with other young refugees.
According to statistics from the Federal Office
for Migration and Refugees in Germany, Somalia is one of the top ten
countries from which the most asylum applications are received. Many of
the applicants are young and unaccompanied.
Uche Akpulu was himself a refugee from Nigeria. He has now been
living for over ten years in Germany and works for the Bavarian Refugee
Council (Bayerischer Flüchtlingsrat). He told DW that most refugees "do not have a legal residence permit
during the asylum process and they live under very, very terrible
conditions." Overcrowding is common and refugees are not allowed to work
to add to the small amount of state support they receive.
Learning to have a life of their own
The Bavarian Refugee Council was founded to draw attention to the situation of refugees and lobby for better living conditions for them. Even though Sara Mohamed now has a home and a small amount of financial support from the government, she still does not have a residence permit after three years in Germany.
Every weekday, she joins other young refugees to attend classes at
the SchlaU school in Munich. SchlaU stands for Schulanaloger Unterricht,
identifying it as a supplementary school within Germany's education
system. The project was launched in 2000 by social worker Michael
Stenger.
Thirteen years on, what started as a language school has grown into a
real school that also teaches other subjects required for students
wanting to take German secondary school examinations. Over 220 refugees
between the ages of 16 and 25 from over 73 countries attend classes at
SchlaU. Upon arriving in Germany without their families, many of them
are shocked by the reality of life as refugees.
"The biggest wish of our students are that they finally have a life
of their own again," head teacher Melanie Weber told DW. "They want to
acquire all the skills that one needs to live in a country like
Germany."
This is also Sarah's wish. "It is really important for me to learn
the language so I can understand the people and be well integrated," she
said. Going back to Somalia is not an option for her.