Now is one whole week, since the people at Bornitzstr 102 Lager have suffered daily harassment from the workers and management of PeWoBe company. The ways have been multiple, from the basics of not giving them food, to waking up early in the morning saying they had to leave and that there things would be thrown to the streets. Menacing with removing beds and blankets, to actually remove locks from doors, cut of light in rooms. Also large amount of meetings have been hold with management, Lageso delegation (officially they don’t recognize pressure or negotiations have been going on), there was only one mission, to transmit people living in the Lager, that the only option was to leave the Lager, to transfer to another Lager (by the way in much worse conditions and far away from the city center).
What is said “there is no other option”, it has to do with the fact that PeWoBe is in the middle of a legal fight with Lageso, to keep the management of the Lager, although the racist mails exchange between the bosses was made public a couple of months ago. So the decisions rely on the private interests of companies, while Lageso/LAF and the Job Center, institutions in charge of the well being of the refugees, just deny any possibility of action on behalf of refugees.
Whole week long refugees, have gone to Lageso and to Job Center to ask for an explanation of what is happening. Today, one person who went to Job Center, received as an answer “you have to stay until the end of the month where you are since your costs have already been paid“, to this, the person asked, “yes, but PeWoBe is throwing me out“. In a moment of reaction, Job Center, tries to call Bornitzstr Lager, impossible to reach, none of the phones were working, no even the fax, so communication with the Lager was not possible. To that Job Center said, “you have to deal yourself with PeWoBe“. Also today, some other people went to Lageso, and also ask “what’s going on?”, the response was also, we don’t know, the only option is to transfer to another Lager, to which people opposed, since for the moment, only KopenicerAllees seems to be the only option, a crowded Lager with around 1000 people.
Meanwhile, inside the Lager, the harassment continued, this time, the women room was the target. Security from the Lager (6 men), a social worker and someone from the management, went inside the women’s room and wanted to force them to leave the Lager. As one women started screaming, the rest of the people in nearby rooms, run and gathered around the security. The question was “why do you want to force these women to leave?”, not being able to continue with the force eviction, the workers had the great idea of calling the police, so that the police threw people out. Police came, asked what was happening, if there was a fight or a quarrel or a strong discussion. None of that was taking place. Workers had to admit that there was nothing happening, an astonished police asked “then why do you call?”, workers answered “we want that you throw this people out”.
Securities trying to evict women using force #Bornitzstr102 #Berlin from abriraqui on Vimeo.
Police got annoyed and said “to move out people that have done nothing, is not our business, that you have to deal it with Lageso, Job Center …”, then they started taking the names of the workers that had by far exceeded their competences. And also the police asked the women, what had happened.
Also in the morning, the 4th and 5th floor have been opened, and families have been moved to the upper floors. In between new people are entering the Lager (it happens daily), with staying permission of 6 months, so, what are the criteria followed?.
As times passes it gets more clear, that everything is a mess, what is happening around Bornitzstr Lager is unclear, irregular, suspicious, there is no clear mandate from Lageso / Job Center of how the situation should be approached, and everything wants to be silenced.
In the background goes violation of human rights, corruption, business with human lives, indifference.