Most refugees in Germany aren't used to talking about their trials and tribulations. But even if they wanted to, psychological help is often hard to come by. One initiative at the anchor center for asylum seekers in Schweinfurt, Bavaria tries to change that with psychosocial peer counselors. We visited the center to find out more about the project for refugees by refugees.
Most asylum seekers at the Schweinfurt anchor center in Bavaria don't have good chances of being allowed to stay in Germany. They come from countries with a low 'protection rate' — regardless of the personal suffering many of the migrants have endured to make it to Europe. InfoMigrants visited the center and talked to its residents.
What is life like for asylum seekers in anchor centers in Germany? We visited one in Schweinfurt, Bavaria, to find out. Three German states recently introduced the so-called anchor centers, where asylum seekers are supposed to stay while their applications are being processed — and they are either given asylum or are deported.
Every year, hundreds of young Gambians make long and dangerous journeys to get to Europe. InfoMigrants spoke to one of them at the anchor center for asylum seekers in Donauwörth, Bavaria.
InfoMigrants visited the Donauwörth 'anchor center' for asylum seekers in Bavaria - one of nine such centers in Germany. Their aim is to accommodate asylum seekers in one place during the entire procedure, from their arrival until their asylum application is decided and they either relocated to another part of Germany or deported. With all the relevant authorities being on site, the process is intended to be faster and more efficient. What's it like to be an asylum seeker there?
Anchor centers – the linchpin of Germany’s immigration ‘master plan’. Refugee rights groups decried these one-stop facilities for asylum seekers as mass holding camps where people would be kept for long periods, denied access to justice and cut off from society. The government insisted that they would make asylum procedures more efficient and speed up deportations. Three months on, we visited one of the anchor centers in Bavaria, to discover that both sides are a little bit right.