Deportation

Yes, we participated in a protest. Armen and Aram are the names of the father and son. "Gegen Abschiebung" means against deportation. In LU in the middle of the night the police came to their apartment and took them, leaving the mother and her severely mobility challenged daughter behind. Usually deported folk have a five year forbidden re-entry. Theirs is two years. This gives us protesters some hope. Still, the mother, with help of Respekt Menschen and her friends from the university, is trying to bring attention to this inhumane treatment.

Above are some of the students who know her. Wednesday afternoons Hanna comes to my class and helps me. She is a German student at the same university. She is studying social work and is wonderful to have in class. She can add so much to make our conversation interesting and meaningful. On that Wednesday of the protest we had painstakingly worked our way through a one page info about the family. Hanna helped with lots of terms they didn't know. When we were done they wanted to confirm again that this was a real story! Hanna and I invited them to the protest. Those who didn't have other engagements came along. It started off as a small group in front of the offices for foreigners (where we got our residence permits).

There were some speeches and the police were watchful on the sides of the street.

While Germany is world renown for taking in well over a million refugees, it still deals with deportations. This family is from Armenia and that is a country that isn't considered "dangerous"at this time. Of course, this family sees it differently. They realize that the mother is allowed to stay in Germany because she had severe cancer and now is a university student and the daughter is completely wheelchair bound (and is attending a special school).

You can see a video clip from TV here

Even if you can't understand what she is saying, you can tell that her German is very good. She has now been in Germany 4 years. She has recovered from her cancer and is studying to become a social worker. In fact, her grades were so good and in addition she devoted countless voluntary hours in her field, that in December she was awarded a prestigious prize from her university. This is one reason why everyone knows her. The fact that she is so selfless and successful in her studies, in spite of her situation, is amazing.

She could only do this with the help of her husband at home. He and the 16 year old son came on visitors visas almost 2 years ago. The son had managed to pass the German language test at a high level and had gotten a placement to job training. They had both been working at applying and re-applying for permission to stay in Germany. 2 days after the deportation the son's job training permission was denied! Now the family is not only dealing with this forced separation, but also with the fear that he'll be conscripted into the Armenian army when he soon turns 18.

What do you think of this poster? Menschlichkeit is a terrific word. It can translate as humanitarianism / humane / benevolence ... Some posters even said "Mitmenschlichkeit". Mit means with. So it's asking us to be humans with other humans and treat them in a humane way!

No human being is illegal!

We have heard in the news that Trump's people are planning to separate immigrant families in the hopes of sending a negative message to families who want to stay together: Don't come to the USA.

My nephew Sasha sent me this info about German pilots refusing to fly deported family members. Click here to read.

Well, we marched a little over half a mile, through the shopping mall, to a large square. By this time many had joined. The TV camera was there and lots of speeches followed. The woman was present with her daughter. I didn't feel right taking a picture. Her face was so drawn and sad.