It’s quite sad to have the current title for this story, but for women who are not citizens, who are not welcome, who are alone, isolated, vulnerable, freedom is not part of their lives, so we cannot say openly where this conversation took place because measures against them can be taken because those who hold the power like playing illegally with women
Oplatz.net: Today was raining as if it was the end of the world. They call it summer but mostly seems Autumn.
All wet, I arrived to the meeting place. We were about to cancel the visit but who said that rain would stop us from meeting women from a lager where they are living in shit conditions.
We met in a Café outside the lager, it sounds nice, like providing some excuse to go out of the lager and meet with friends like people do, but the truth is different, we met outside because women are threaten by “The Office”. They give “friendly advices” to women who want to speak about their situation inside the lagers, those who want to share how is their daily life in a lager have to deal also with menaces, and we’ve seen this not only in one lager, so what will be written today applies for many other places.
Once we ordered some coffee to try to, at least recover from the dampness, we introduced ourselves, some of us were new, some not. Names from different countries, introductions said in different languages (also I won’t mention them since could point out who was talking to us), some of us were more chatty, it was the first time someone could speak with someone in her own language. Words came out non-stop, like a volcano, too many things to be said, too many months silent, too many experiences to be shared, desperation in the eyes, a big smile for being able to express it.
Translation makes things slow, but gives time to watch, to feel, when finally the words come, they describe how a woman in the lager found herself signing a paper she didn’t understand. The social worker had asked her to sign it but refused to explain what was it about, placed a book in the middle of the paper, but said it was something for some Bundesamt. The woman signed but asked for a copy. Continue reading
