Coronavirus in refugee camps

I'm not gonna stay here anymore! Then you hear angry voices. Some young men try to open a door, cops push it on. Finally, the door closes. So concludes a video recorded by mobile phone at a refugee center in Berlin, showing an incident two weeks ago.

It starts with that, how an ambulance surrounded by police enters the container centre where refugees are located. Police protection seems necessary because residents are angry. One calls: “You bring us here people with Corona.” Refugees are afraid because there's one person in the ambulance with corona and three contact persons. Ambulance and police leave, refugees must stay inside. Some oppose that decision. This center has been in quarantine for days. Now residents fear that the quarantine will begin again for 14 days.

Lack of knowledge and uncertainty are widespread among refugees. “Once we accepted the infected from our headquarters, we had just calmed down”, says Ana (changed name), “But then new families brought us here and the situation got rough. I'm afraid for the kids. Why do they get infected here? They've isolated us here and they're also infected. Anna does not mean the real name for fear of losing the country in the refugee centre. She was there when the incident happened. Her voice on the phone sounds angry, but even scared. The Office for Refugees Issues, (LAF) explains about Deutsche Welle, that one person infected with Covid-19 and three contact persons moved, because otherwise another centre under quarantine had to be placed. The possibility of isolation there was more appropriate, according to the LAF.

“People were panicking”

If those affected could isolate themselves, why was there no one allowed to leave the building? When the refugee center was placed days ago under quarantine because of infected residents, the change was too great for residents because it came unannounced. People were panicking, because no one had informed us before. We couldn't buy anything. Hygienic products and others were finished. All were aggressive and indignant. ”

The LAF writes on this, that because of the quick decision of the health office, a preliminary announcement was not previously possible due to quarantine. Residents after the quarantine decision were informed “broadly” in direct language and small groups. It further states that “this may not be enough for the sense of subjectiveness of specific residents. ”

This is not ethical“

Meanwhile, the center is not in quarantine. But they are currently located in quarantine, two other refugee centres in Berlin, the LAF says. There are 270 people in one, some 100 refugees in the other. Two weeks in a row, they should not leave the center, nor will buying or visiting a doctor be allowed. A company brings food to the center, and the doctor comes there. If other cases arise at this time, quarantine will be extended.

About a million and a half refugees live in Germany, mostly in mass refugee centers with several hundred inhabitants. The environments are narrow, part of the rooms with some beds is divided among some refugees, who do not know each other. Refugees - aid organisations criticise this state of foreign command and lack of the private sphere. An appeal of these organisations says that due to small facilities and the common use of toilets and kitchen refugees are particularly endangered by the Corona virus.

Even at two refugee centres currently in quarantine, toilets are in common, writes the DW-Asked LAF. In the worst case, does that mean that residents infect each other's chains and quarantine can be extended weeks after week. This question is also posed by a Berlin Health Office official who will remain anonymous. This is nothing else, like in a crotch with infected ones. The motto “puts the whole center under quarantine until everyone's infected. That's not ethical. ”

Health offices are the ones that have a voice in their decision about quarantine. Replacing refugees in quarantine en masse may be problematic. “This can cause many problems in trauma people.” According to anonymous employee, it would be best to put these people in empty hotels.

The Berlin Health Senate Administration will soon open a quarantine centre to send in infected people and contact in order to ward off a chain infection. Nora Breeger from the organisation of “Berlin Refugees Council” says the main problem currently is the transmission of information. Some centers are operated only by stoppages, “without sufficient information and explanations. This leads to great dissatisfaction and uncertainty among residents.” True, in some centers there are brochures of information in several languages, but that is not enough. Many who do not understand German still have unanswered questions, says Nora Breeger.