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Syrian migrants in Germany protest against the sexual assaults that took place over the New Year
By Tania Kurd Mirza:
If anyone wants to leave his own home due to unhappiness and, before his departure, reads the quote by Shams Tabrizi which says “However you go to the throne of God and sit on it, it is useless. what you need to do in the early stage is open your heart or to be a lover who has a soul”, he will then question whether he should leave his country or not.
Therefore, we must ask that, if we are going to take a journey to the inside of our thinking, is this not better than to leave our country and seek asylum in other places? According to the migrants, they are leaving their homes in order to find a safe haven for themselves and their families, but actually, is this a journey taking them far away from themselves and fleeing the self-war they may have encountered? Humans can’t have satisfaction anywhere in the world if they cannot get satisfaction within themselves.
Immigration is not a simple matter. If we look at the aftermath of the Brussels’ explosion, and refer back to the New Year celebrations of 2016 in Germany, where hundreds of sexual assaults were reported; I believe there is a connection, why, because many migrants have had to grow up on the streets of Europe influenced by European culture that they do not fully understand. It is not surprising that many are considered to be possible terrorists even though that is not their intention, maybe their intention was to become a Human Rights activists and draw attention to the plight of their people at home in their own country and help to bring peace and democracy to their homeland – so how does this happen and what should we consider before making such a harsh judgment?
The reporting of hundreds of sexual assaults (including groping), numerous thefts, and at least five rapes that allegedly took place in the City Square, Cologne, Germany during New Years Eve 2016 celebrations hit the mainstream media throughout Europe, the Middle East and other areas of the world. Police reported that the perpetrators were men of “Arab or North African appearance” and called the incident “a completely new dimension of crime”.
By 15th February 2016, the police in Cologne had identified 73 suspects. The attacks sparked an international outcry, and a debate about women’s rights and social differences between European Societies and those of North Africa and the Middle East.
Women’s rights activists displayed many posters which included the following question: “Are seekers running away from war, did they come to Germany to find safety or did they come to find sex”? Are they Political, Humanitarian migrants or have they come seeking sex?
There has been many questions and answers, in depth research has been completed. The results that were offered only strengthened criticism of the sustainability of Germany’s asylum policy and many people and NGOs called for the Government to deport the attackers. There was no statement however, in the findings of the investigation as to why the attacks took place in the first instance or the fact that nobody has requested this information?
Guilty perpetrators should be dealt with within the law without a doubt and nobody is suggesting otherwise. However, we must at the same time ascertain the reasons as to why the perpetrators would conduct such attacks. I believe there are many reasons, the following being the most important:
1) The perpetrator is unable to understand the language and is unable to communicate, which causes an immediate barrier between him and the citizens of his new community. He is unable to voice is concerns, grievances and fears which in turn is extremely frustrating and stressful. This leads to feelings of marginalisation and isolation and in many cases may lead to radicalisation, because he is unable to interact in any other way.
2) Migrants are made aware that sex is for sale in Germany, but such sex is available only to those that have the money to pay for it. How could migrants pay for sex when all they are entitled to is payments for shelter made direct to the shelter administration?
When they make the decision to leave their homes and country the majority have no choice but to leave everything behind, they come with very little, sometimes nothing. So, in this sense, they cannot have sexual relations either because they do not have the money to pay for it and so again they experience exclusion to something that is considered an everyday right as long as you have the money!
3) The processes that immigrants have to go through in order to begin a new life can be the source of much frustration, unhappiness, stress and anger. The process is not a straightforward one and can be extremely complicated and lengthy. People quite often have to wait a very long time before registration is possible, sometimes years and not always with a positive result: refugee status is not always granted. Only when refugee status has been granted can an immigrant begin to build a new life and hope to integrate into their new community. Until this time many have to stay in the camps and suffer an unbearable day-to-day existence where it is easy to give up hope of ever making the new life that was once imagined and this again puts the immigrant in a position of isolation, susceptible to radicalisation.
4) While migrants are not fully integrated into the community, where they can learn about European society and culture, they will always feel isolated and will be at the mercy of radicalisation. When a migrant has been uprooted from his homeland, for whatever reason, unless he is accepted and made to feel part of his new community, he will harbour feelings of resentment and exclusion. Experiencing this isolation and alienation instigates feelings of revenge against their new host community, whereby they feel that Jihad and becoming a radical is their only option because they are not wanted — and this applies to secular immigrants, not only to Muslims.
If European Countries truly wish to eliminate terror and all associated attacks, such as the sexual assaults on New Year’s Eve 2016 in Germany, if they truly wish to have an effective humanitarian migration system they must take a deeper looker as to the real causes of such incidents and deal with them effectively from the root cause… And most importantly they must inform their citizens that it should not make a difference whether a person has YELLOW or BLACK hair!
Tania Kurd Mirza is a lawyer writer and women’s rights activist – http://taniakurd.blogspot.com/
