Refugees

After Danish Jews fled to their neutral neighbours in 1943 and Sweden agreed to offer temporary refuge to some thirty thousand survivors of the Nazi concentration camps, a country deeply averse to foreigners transformed. So can Europe today. An article of the "Berlin Anthology".

Europe has always been a continent of refugees und migrations. The debate surrounding how to deal with these challenges has only just begun. An article of our "Berlin Anthology".

From my hotel room in Budapest at the weekend, I followed the images of Germany’s Willkommenskultur, the country’s policy and manner of welcoming refugees and migrants. They have now been granted permission to travel via Austria to Germany.

For four days now I have been in Budapest, a witness to a drama that I would have considered impossible in an EU capital not long ago.

Frau Meiser doesn't know much about her lodger. Herr Nazim is clean and is neat. He speaks pretty German and his wife is dead. An article of the "Berlin Anthology" about a secret love.

Malika and Fatima are waiting for me by the entrance to the women’s clinic at the Charité. The women are very quiet; I try to strike up a conversation. I ask them how they lived in Chechnya... An article of the "Berlin Anthology".

The true heroes of our world choose to flee, instead of pushing automatic rifles into the hands of their sons. A poem from the "Berlin Anthology".

It does not help to turn the world around. It does not help to shake the Law as hard as one can. Justice refuses to function in a recognizable manner. An article of the "Berlin Anthology".

On the day after the World Refugee Day, five thousand nationalists and neo-Nazis marched through Bratislava, demanding to stop “the Islamisation of Europe” - the police had to intervene. Still, many Slovak politicians are casting about anti-immigration sentiment.

At the southern border of “Fortress Europe”, the Mediterranean has turned into a graveyard. The current migrant crisis in Europe is about more than a risk to the EU’s reputation. It strikes at the core of the EU’s founding values.  A continuation of its half-hearted response to the migration crisis is out of question.