archive Refugees in Berlin, permanent residence in the emergency shelter
In Berlin, many refugees have to continue living in gyms. Complex bureaucracy often prevents the release of new accommodation. The victims are not only more than 3,000 refugees who have no privacy. The sports clubs are also feeling the consequences, because they are losing members.
By Wolf-Sören Treusch | 11/23/2016
A sports hall in Berlin-Wilmersdorf. 130 refugees live here, most of them come from Syria, from Iran and Iraq, from Afghanistan. Families are there, but mainly young men, 20 to 30 years old. In the anteroom, they play cards or lounge on the sofas and type on their smartphones. Aman, a young Kurd from Iraq, has been waiting for a residence permit for months. He finds life in the gym "difficult, very difficult. Yes, because: there are families, there are people who like it, there are people who like it, you can't live together like that. If I want something, that I want something, and I don't want this thing, then I have to argue with him about it."New accommodation was ready months ago. The hall is one of the somewhat more comfortable emergency accommodations in Berlin. Good air, relatively quiet, in the provisional, about three by four meter cabins with the bunk beds there is a carpet here and there. Yasser Elias and his friends have also settled down. There are only three of them sharing their cabin, not six like last winter. Nevertheless, Yasser prefers to go out."Halle not good. You know, I have school. Then I don't sleep in the night, don't sleep, you know. In the night don't sleep well.""But here are earplugs. We have them Ear plug." Julia Tecklenborg from the German Red Cross tries to help where she can. For a year she looked after the refugees in the sports hall, now she is no longer needed. she hopes. "When Heerstrasse opens, you can go to Heerstrasse." But that's exactly where the problem lies: with the move to the new accommodation. An old office building has been ready for occupancy for months, but a problem typical of Berlin prevents the refugees from moving in. Sascha Langenbach, spokesman for the State Office for Refugee Affairs. Complicated award procedures as an obstacle "To date, the final reports on fire protection have not yet been submitted. Unfortunately, one cannot award an award until this is completed. That is the problem." ready-to-move-in refugee accommodation in Berlin cannot yet be used. The reason: the complicated award procedures. "These are Europe-wide tenders, each tender for each property has 80 to 90 pages DIN A4, that is, description of services, appendix, security concepts, etc. And with these 80 or 90 pages, there can always be a There can be mistakes." And it is precisely these mistakes, according to Langenbach, that the unsuccessful applicants would exploit to take legal action against the award procedure. "Because you can make money with refugee accommodation, and players who have played no role in the Refugee accommodation played in Berlin to get a foot in the door." Promised too much in the summer Result: no operator, so no operation. 3,200 refugees will continue to live in 38 Berlin gyms for many months. The first demands for interim solutions are becoming louder. The state of Berlin should take over the operation of the homes on its own for a year or two. The President of the State Sports Association, Klaus Böger, is really angry. How can you promise in the summer to have the halls free by the end of the year when you know how complicated the process is." And now that the elections in Berlin are over, I can only urgently advise politicians to finally actually act.""4 , 3, 2, 1." The window panes are masked off, the light is diffuse, the stone floor is covered with mats: the former drugstore in the center of Karow, in the north of Berlin, doesn't look all that inviting. It doesn't matter to the five women, step aerobics can be done anywhere. But there were already more participants, says Kirsten Ulrich from the board of the Karower badgers. Many no longer come, precisely because the club has moved its sports activities to places like this. Had to move." We are in a church meeting center, in a community center, we are in a dining room of a primary school, we are in an atrium, in a barefoot room, and then fortunately we got three or four compensatory times in other halls, but of course spread over Karow, Buch, Blankenburg."Sports clubs are losing members In their actual gymnasium in Karow, there has only been room for refugees for a year. The club had to relocate 75 sports facilities or cancel them altogether. 300 people left the association, a sixth of the members. Kirsten Ulrich says the Karow badgers are fighting for their existence. "Yes, you really have to say that. We went into our reserves, made losses this year, it's not like we're going to be insolvent in the next two months , but should it be like this until next summer, as it looks now, it will be tight. Very tight." probably understanding. But she also sees the needs of her protégés. Months in a confined space with strangers, no own kitchen, no own shower, little variety and a lot of worries: That's why more and more refugees are turning to drugs."We're lucky that we don't have any hard drugs here, but of course it's in Berlin is very easy to buy weed or hashish or whatever, many people escape there a bit. Maybe just to somehow forget everything, you can get hold of it super quickly, including alcohol." the first step towards a better life. Soon, however, many refugees will spend Christmas in a gym for the second time. 
