“I am Bashar and I am from Syria. Like most of the people here at LaGeSo, I have been waiting for a long time without knowing how it will go from here. Maybe I’m still here tomorrow, maybe I will get housing assigned and need to travel to another city. At first, this new situation of being in a foreign country was was difficult for me. Now I’m seeing it as a challenge and want to prove that I can do it – that the Syrians can do it. I fled from the war and couldn’t live in danger anymore. …

Hier findet ihr die deutsche Version: http://www.spiegel.de/politik/deutschland/fluechtlinge-in-berlin-naheed-aus-afghanistan-a-1053260.html “I am Naheed, I came here alone from Afghanistan. It’s very unsafe in my home country, every day there are attacks, and innocent people are getting killed. I worked as a police officer in Kabul. The Taliban are against everyone who is involved in progress, for example working for the government or in universities. They threatened me, and I had to give up my job. Then I worked in a bank as well as studying law at university, but again the Taliban threatened to kill me and my parents. They started to follow …

Hier findet ihr die deutsche Version: http://www.spiegel.de/politik/deutschland/fotoblog-ueber-fluechtlinge-in-berlin-sayed-aus-pakistan-a-1051976.html “I am Sayed. I am 17 years old and traveled from Pakistan to Germany by myself just 11 days ago. I’m from a bigger city right on the border with Afghanistan. My area is known for conflicts between the Sunni and Shia communities. One day while sitting in class, three masked men came rushing in, starting to shoot random people. My closest and longtime friend was killed that day. I was devastated. After my brother lost his leg because somebody put a bomb under his car, my father wanted me to leave the …

Hier findet ihr die deutsche Version: http://www.spiegel.de/politik/deutschland/fotoblog-ueber-fluechtlinge-in-berlin-ahmed-aus-syrien-a-1051740.html “I am Ahmed and these are my daughters Maria and Bisan. I came to Germany by myself first because I thought that was safer. My wife Heba and my children followed afterwards. She says the children cried a lot during the journey. The boat they took almost capsized close to Greece, luckily they were saved in time. My older daughter didn’t understand why they had left Aleppo in Syria and wants everything to go back to normal. Then my wife always said: “We are going to where Dad is and where you will …

I am Mahmoud and this is my wife Muna and these are my children Mais and Mohammad. My other son is in the front of the queue as we all take turns waiting in line with hopes our number will be called soon. As of now, we have been waiting for 18 days and we are starting to feel desperate. Unfortunately, we were told that the office lost our file. Otherwise, we feel lucky as we are temporarily staying with my brother who’s already been living in Berlin for a long time. He has a two-room apartment which including his …

Hier findet ihr die deutsche Version: http://www.spiegel.de/politik/deutschland/fotoblog-ueber-fluechtlinge-in-berlin-hagos-und-miheret-a-1051487.html “My name is Hagos and this is my sister Miheret. We came to Berlin three months ago. Here all is fine when compared to back home in Eritrea. From age 15, most children have to join the army, even the girls. For many young people, fleeing is the only option. Our father died in 1991 fighting in Ethiopia and our mother has passed away a few years ago. First we fled to Sudan, then to Libya. In both countries we stayed for several months looking for work to pay for our journey to …

“I am Faris and this is my son Anas and my wife Malak. We miss our family and friends we had to leave behind. We are from Damascus, Syria. I worked as a business man selling furniture. Due to the war, we had to leave our country. We sold our car to be able to get out of the country. We’ve lost everything we had. After waiting here at LaGeSo for eight days, today they told us that our file was lost. All we are asking for is to be able to sleep in peace, to rest and not have …

“I am Hanade and this is my younger sister Riham. We just arrived in Berlin today, after a hard 21-day journey from Syria. Along with me came my two sisters and my father. We are ok now, only our uncertain situation here is troubling me. The fleeing already cost 16,000$ for 4 persons and for now, I had to leave my husband and two children behind. I am missing them a lot and it’s hard, but all I am thinking of is the future. My dream is to live in a small house together with my family – here or …

I ran into Mohammad again and almost didn’t recognize him at first. As you may have noticed, I have already taken his photo a few days ago. By now, he has been processed by the LaGeSo and has found a place to stay. He recently returned to support his friend Massoud with whom he had fled and is currently still waiting in line. In two weeks Mohammad will have his court hearing to determine whether or not he can stay in Germany. Having left behind the uncertain situation around LaGeSo he seems like a different person to me, in a …

“The situation in Syria is getting worse and I wanted my family to be safe.” – Ahmed (father of six children)