Munich volunteers concerns over refugee response

The Syrians, Iraqis, Afghans, and Pakistanis keep coming to Munich, but the city keeps absorbing them with barely a blink. The machine of Bavarian efficiency - simultaneously preparing for some six million visitors when the Oktoberfest begins next week - is now in top gear, and most refugees arriving at the central station don't even pass through the applauding crowds and the small arrivals hall adjacent to the giant station. Instead they are swiftly transferred to a smaller train on the opposite platform to be taken to the nearest reception and medical care center.

This is a disused signals hall, just a couple of kilometers away from the central station, made available by Germany's state-owned railway operator Deutsche Bahn and then hastily converted. (According to the "Süddeutsche Zeitung," a phone call from Munich Mayor Christian Reiter ensured that one of the city's breweries provided benches to furnish it).

'What's the police like here?'

Outside this transfer station, Jamel, a volunteer interpreter whose high-visibility jacket announces that he speaks Arabic and Kurdish, says that this additional train journey back out of the main station often unnerves the new arrivals. Many have been so traumatized by police abuse and false announcements in Hungary and Bulgaria that, even though they have heard of the warm welcome that others have had from the German people, they can barely trust anyone in uniform.

"They're scared, they think Germany is like Hungary," Jamel told DW. "They think the police will hit them, hurt them. They keep asking us, 'What's the police like here?' We have to explain that the German police is not like that. I heard a story from one of them that a Bulgarian officer came with a military truck and asked for $2,000 per person to take them from the Turkish border to Sofia."

Jamel also says he has trouble explaining to many people that they are free now: "They keep asking, 'Are we in custody here?' And we say, 'No no, you can go when you want.' "

Volunteering

The intake has slowed down. After an alarming weekend when 20,000 people arrived on the Budapest trains, the estimates that another 10,000 would appear on Monday proved over-excited, as "only" 4,400 showed up. On Tuesday, the official figure at 2:30p.m. in the afternoon was 1,340 people. "Though 1,340 people is still an enormous scale, compared to normal times," a spokeswoman for the government of Upper Bavaria said. "But we're ahead of the current situation at the moment - yesterday we felt more like we were just equal to the current situation."

Though things might have been a lot more difficult without the tireless volunteering of the Munich people who appear at the main station every morning to see if they can help. But with the end of the summer at hand, many of these have to return to work or university.

"They're doing things that are more than breathtaking," the government spokeswoman said. "But you're right, some of them need to go back to work, which is why the city of Munich has agreed to replace the key coordinators with public officials."

What now?

But emergency measures are easier than long-term solutions, and Germany has not always had a great record in integrating its minorities. In fact, some of the volunteers in Munich did not think much of the state's response to this crisis, despite all the plaudits for Chancellor Angela Merkel in the international media.

"It sometimes looks like this welcome culture stops at this glass wall [at the arrivals hall]," said Colin Turner, spokesman for the network of volunteers at Munich station. "Sure, there are special rules for Syrian refugees. But why should someone who has fled 'IS' from Iraq have different conditions than someone from Syria? In my opinion, that is being communicated poorly - and dishonestly, because the public, who want to be part of this welcome culture, are being allowed to think that all these people are going to be helped."

As Turner says, Germany still has many different rules for different people from different countries. No one knows whether the people being cheered through Munich station will be granted asylum, and if so for how long, or whether they might be deported. "For example a refugee from Eritrea, who gets welcomed in exactly the same way by the population, gets treated differently to someone from Syria," he told DW. "But I think the symbolism of the people's response is clear: if you're applauding this, you have to change the system. Fortress Europe is still standing, people are still drowning, the routes are still dangerous up to the Austrian border. People have to fight their way here illegally, and then they only get legalized retrospectively."

Meanwhile, Stephan Dünnwald of the Bavarian Refugees' Council is concerned about the new plan presented by the German government, which sees a new six-billion-euro budget for dealing with refugees. "We have an asylum recognition quota of around 50 percent - that means about 50 percent will stay here," he told DW. "Of the others, perhaps another 50 percent could stay - so if 800,000 refugees come this year, then we'll see a population increase of 600,000 people. That's 600,000 people who need German lessons, job offers, training places, university places. Six billion euros doesn't look like very much then."