By Baghdadhope
It landed yesterday in Hanover the plane coming from Damascus to Germany with the first 122 Iraqis (31 families) who benefited from the program launched last year by the European Union for the admission of 10,000 refugees residing in Syria and Jordan and belonging to vulnerable groups: single mothers, victims of torture, people in need of medical treatmwents and members of religious minorities. The refugees arriving in Europe were selected by the Syrian and Jordanian office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and had to meet certain minimum requirements. For those destined to Germany, reports the Deutsche Welle, according to an agreement between Germany and the European Union, they should not have a criminal past or have been members of the Baath Party of Saddam Hussein, and single mothers, those suffering from post-traumatic stress and those who have family ties on German soil had a greater chance of being included in the list. As it was for members of the Iraqi Christian minority.
Newcomers will initially be accommodated for two weeks in Lower Saxony, in Friedland camp that, created in 1945, has since then hosted 4,000,000 people fleeing from neighboring countries, East Germany, Russia, Hungary, but also Chileans fleeing Pinochet’s regime, the Vietnamese boat-people, Tamils from Sri Lanka, Albanians.
In Friedland camp the Iraqis will be given first aid and first medical treatments to be then assigned to various cities of the country where they will follow 645 hours of German language, orientation and integration courses with a three-year extendable residency permit. A treatment that would make these newcomers even "privileged". It is always the Deutsche Welle, in fact, that points out how all this will lead to a better and faster integration of these refugees if compared to those arrived previously who only have a document certifying their being in Germany illegally that, while not allowing their repatriation considering the not yet “normalized” Iraqi situation, does not allow them to move freely even within the same country or, for example, to attend language classes, the first step toward normal life in a country other than their own, because "there is no integration without language" noted Heinrich Huebner, spokesman for the German Interior Minister. It was the same Huebner who explained the meaning of the measure the German Government decided to adopt welcoming 2.500 refugees (2000 from Syria and 500 from Jordan): "This program gives people who cannot return to their homeland a chance at a better life," and that gives to Germany the primacy in generosity compared to other European countries that until now have accepted only other 2.500 in total. If 450 of them will go to Sweden, the country that in recent years has accepted the largest number of Iraqis - 80,000 since 2006 - the remaining will in fact go to Great Britain, Holland, Norway, Finland and Denmark.
Yet the willingness of Germany is still not sufficient according to many. It is not according to some humanitarian organizations but also for Kai Weber, of the Council for Refugees of Lower Saxony, the federal state the capital of which is Hannover and where Friedland camp is. Weber not only declared himself in favor of granting residence permits to Iraqis living in Germany illegally, but proposed a general rethinking of immigration policy because "you can't say that because of the situation in Iraq we'll take in these victims of war, while at the same time, you're thinking concretely of how you can one day send them back to their country," adding instead that “we have to have a concept of how to offer these Iraqis a real chance at a life in Germany"and that if 2.500 refugees represent an insignificant number compared to the 2 millions who left the country (the other 2.5 million are IDPs) it is still a "sign of goodwill" but that it would be really significant if Germany would accept at least “10 times that amount.” Certainly the path of the refugees will not be easy, as it is not for anyone forced to flee his homeland because of violence. Certainly life in Germany will mean obstacles and perhaps pain. But equally certainly that path means for many at least the hope that silences all doubts and fears, and that if all goes well in a German hospital will give back life to a 10-month-old child born with a heart defect who risked to die in Jordan.
Which parent would give up such a hope?
http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2009/03/19/europe/EU-Germany-Iraq-Refugees.php
http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,,4110465,00.html
http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/260632,germany-welcomes-refugees-from-iraq.html
http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,,4110875,00.html
http://www.unhcr.org/news/NEWS/49be54872.html