Since 14.07.2014, the feminist group ‘Women in Exile & Friends’ has been traveling from Nuremberg to Berlin with Heinz Ratz’s escape ship project. With a journey on rafts, they draw attention to the situation of refugee women and children and, as part of an accompanying program in shelters for asylum seekers, talk to the residents about their concerns and problems. Now they are taking stock.

Press release from Women in Exile & Friends on tour 04.08.2014

Refugee women’s group on tour across Germany: interim results

Since 14.07.2014, the feminist group ‘Women in Exile & Friends’ has been traveling from Nuremberg to Berlin with Heinz Ratz’s escape ship project. With a journey on rafts, they draw attention to the situation of refugee women and children and, as part of an accompanying program in shelters for asylum seekers, talk to the residents about their concerns and problems. Now they are taking stock:

Elisabeth Ngari, founding member of ‘Women in Exile’: “We have been on the road for three weeks now and many conversations with refugee women in Bayer, Hessen, Rheinland-Pfalz and now in Baden-Württemberg confirmed our experience. Refugee women are doubly victims of discrimination: they are marginalized as asylum seekers by racist laws and discriminated against as women.”

Many accommodations for asylum seekers lack the most basic necessities: space for a baby crib, sufficient washing machines, a children’s room, hot water for showers, lockable showers … Women have to cross courtyards or walk up one or two flights of stairs to cook or go to the bathroom. This exposes women to violence and sexual harassment because they have no privacy. Thus, they often have to wait many years for a decision on their asylum procedure.

Refugee women in Bavaria and Saarland reported how disenfranchising and degrading life is with food parcels: “It has pork in it. I leave it right there in the serving tray. It is then thrown away, it is a waste of money. And there’s never enough milk, I have to buy it with my pocket money.” Other women in Bavaria tell of getting full meals in the shelter. “The food is sometimes really disgusting. There’s hair in it and sometimes pork.” Many women also suffer greatly from having to beg for any medical treatment from the social welfare office.

Elisabeth Ngari: “Most of the time it is the women who feel responsible for organizing everyday life for their children and families under such conditions. Therefore, we demand to abolish the Asylum Seekers Benefits Act and collective housing and to accommodate asylum seekers in apartments.”

Many women wait every day to be deported to other European countries because of the Dublin III regulation. Yet it is well documented how women, as a particularly vulnerable group, suffer from the miserable living conditions for asylum seekers in Hungary or Italy. But deportation to Sweden or the Netherlands can also be a threat: It is particularly important for women to apply for asylum where they have friends or relatives whose support they can count on.
Elisabeth Ngari: “That means women are sent back and forth across Europe like general cargo and can never feel safe. That is why we are calling for Dublin III to be abolished!”

Press contact: Elisabeth Ngari, Tel. 0176 32920586

Background:

* ‘Women in Exile & Friends’ is a feminist group from Berlin and Brandenburg, founded in 2011 by the refugee women’s self-organization ‘Women in Exile’. More information: http://women-in-exile.net/

* Refugee women get loud! Action tour across Germany: http://www.refugee-women-tour.net