A report describing the poor treatment of Christian refugees in a reception centre in Rothenburg preceeded huge changes by the centre, making it an example for other refugee centres to follow, it was reported in November.
Showing there needed to be no more ‘integration strategies which happened at the expense of Christians’, a list of recommendations were made including: increasing the numbers of non-Muslim staff; training of staff about inter-religious clashes and their history; the education of asylum seekers about the nature of religious freedom.
Christians threatened
Prior to this, Christians had been threatened with beheadings, in notices posted on the walls of the centre, and indiscriminate sentencing by shari’a councils.
The report acknowledged the sensitivity of reporting religiously motivated violence and the possibility some will ‘exploit’ it to feed right-wing or anti-Islamic agendas, but stressed that ‘the human right of religious freedom and the protection of victims in a country like Germany – that is a constant admonisher of human rights abuses on an international scale – should not be sacrificed for political objectives or the interests of individual groups’.
Slim chance of help
The original report said that, in most centres, ‘Christians have [a] pretty slim chance of getting help’ because ‘the victims of religiously motivated attacks are a minority, and the reasons why Muslims attack Christians and other religious minorities are not well known to facilities’ operators and management.
‘For this reason, religiously motivated attacks are either not recognised or they are deliberately trivialised as general conflicts between refugees. The families of the predominantly Muslim support staff, i.e. security personnel and interpreters, will tend to side with their fellow believers in religious conflicts or in some cases even become perpetrators themselves, as experience shows.’
It noted that the tension in the centre had increased around the time of Ramadan, when hunger and thirst among the Muslims led to heightened emotions.
One interviewee said that, during Ramadan, ‘The Afghans does not want [sic] to use the same washing machine we wash with because to them we are unworthy and impure. From the moment the Afghans knew that we are Christians, they disinfected the bathroom every time we used it. They call us infidels, neciz [impure], won’t shake our hands and are very careful to not have any physical contact with us.’
Separate accommodation
The report said it was particularly important for staff to recognise the challenge of dealing with an influx of refugees from Islamic nations where the idea of religious freedom and equality of all people is not compatible. It noted that the migrant quarters were ‘much more aligned to the needs of Muslims, which then often has substantial side effects for the other residents’.
The report’s authors recommended that Christians and other religious minorities who have already been victims of persecution and discrimination should be given separate accommodation.
