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IMMIGRATION

Host refugees at Christmas: Berlin bishop

As Germany prepares for another traditional Christmas, the Catholic bishop of Berlin has called on his flock to invite refugees to join their celebrations this year.

Published: 9 December 2015 10:38 CET
Host refugees at Christmas: Berlin bishop
A refugee and a volunteer decorate a Christmas tree together in Bremen. Photo: DPA

“We should make lots of personal contacts. Why not invite someone to celebrate Christmas with you at home?” Bishop Heiner Koch said.

“This is a kind of modern version of the Nativity story.”

The bishop also promised that the Church would strive to organize more volunteer helpers in Berlin to give those who have been working so hard in recent months a well-earned break.

Teaching refugees about Christmas

Meanwhile in Nuremberg refugees are encountering the holiday for the first time. Bavaria's second city is perhaps the town most associated with the festive season in the German imagination, famous for its Christmas market and the Christkind (Christ child) ceremony. 

DON'T MISS: Nuremberg elects angel to run Christmas market

“There were so many people there – and suddenly everyone went totally silent,” said Mustafe, a 17-year-old refugee from Somalia who attended the traditional opening of the Nuremberg Christmas market.

While he couldn't completely understand the speech by the girl playing the Christkind this year as she spoke too fast for him, he understood that it was “a very special and celebratory occasion” for Nurembergers.

Young refugees and volunteers at the Nuremberg Christmas market. Photo: DPA

Mustafe is one of around 14,500 unaccompanied refugee children living in Bavaria – part of a total of 60,000 in Germany.

One of the others in his small group living in Schnaittach, near Nuremberg, is Syrian Abdul Salam, who recalled local celebrations in his home town of Latakia and his Christian friends' stories about their traditions.

'It makes sense to explain it to them'

While most of the the nine teenagers in the Abdul and Mustafe's group only knew the festival from American films like Home Alone, that hasn't stopped them from becoming curious as December 25th approaches.

Abdifatah, another Somali, explained that he is reading the Bible in English and finding many similarities with Islam.

Just as Christians celebrate the birth of Jesus, Muslims also celebrate the birth of the prophet Mohammed, he said.

“We've found that people who believe are also very interested in other religions,” said Gülay Aybar-Emonds from the Nuremberg Intercultural Office.

She and her colleagues have been explaining Christmas traditions to newly-arrived Muslims, saying that “they're soaking up the whole atmosphere, so it makes sense to explain it to them”.

Around 70 percent of asylum applicants are Muslim, while 16 percent are Christian, according to the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees (BAMF).

CRIME

Germany mulls expulsions to Afghanistan after knife attack

Germany said Tuesday it was considering allowing deportations to Afghanistan, after an asylum seeker from the country injured five and killed a police officer in a knife attack.

Published: 4 June 2024 14:50 CEST
Germany mulls expulsions to Afghanistan after knife attack

Officials had been carrying out an “intensive review for several months… to allow the deportation of serious criminals and dangerous individuals to Afghanistan”, Interior Minister Nancy Faeser told journalists.

“It is clear to me that people who pose a potential threat to Germany’s security must be deported quickly,” Faeser said.

“That is why we are doing everything possible to find ways to deport criminals and dangerous people to both Syria and Afghanistan,” she said.

Deportations to Afghanistan from Germany have been completely stopped since the Taliban retook power in 2021.

But a debate over resuming expulsions has resurged after a 25-year-old Afghan was accused of attacking people with a knife at an anti-Islam rally in the western city of Mannheim on Friday.

A police officer, 29, died on Sunday after being repeatedly stabbed as he tried to intervene in the attack.

Five people taking part in a rally organised by Pax Europa, a campaign group against radical Islam, were also wounded.

Friday’s brutal attack has inflamed a public debate over immigration in the run up to European elections and prompted calls to expand efforts to expel criminals.

READ ALSO: Tensions high in Mannheim after knife attack claims life of policeman

The suspect, named in the media as Sulaiman Ataee, came to Germany as a refugee in March 2013, according to reports.

Ataee, who arrived in the country with his brother at the age of only 14, was initially refused asylum but was not deported because of his age, according to German daily Bild.

Ataee subsequently went to school in Germany, and married a German woman of Turkish origin in 2019, with whom he has two children, according to the Spiegel weekly.

Per the reports, Ataee was not seen by authorities as a risk and did not appear to neighbours at his home in Heppenheim as an extremist.

Anti-terrorism prosecutors on Monday took over the investigation into the incident, as they looked to establish a motive.

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