World

German tabloids print Arabic refugee welcome guides

The four-page guide includes a dictionary of basic German phrases, greetings, directions and the days of the week

Afp September 09, 2015

asylum seekers wait in front of the federal office for migration and refugees bamf at berlin 039 s spandau district germany august 17 2015 photo reuters

Asylum seekers wait in front of the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees (BAMF) at Berlin's Spandau district, Germany August 17, 2015. PHOTO: REUTERS

BERLIN: German newspapers Bild and BZ published Wednesday a pull-out guide in Arabic for refugees in the capital city, headlining it "Welcome to Berlin".

The four-page guide includes a map bearing Arabic translations of key districts, with locations of refugee shelters and other key migration services.

Read: Thousands of refugees receive warm welcome in Germany

The supplement published in the greater Berlin region also includes a dictionary of basic German phrases, greetings, directions and the days of the week.

BZ told readers to give the edition "as a gift to a refugee after reading it".

Germany's media have thrown their weight behind the government's decision to open the doors to an unprecedented number of refugees fleeing war and persecution in countries including Syria and Iraq.

Bild, Germany's top-selling daily, has in recent weeks run a campaign called "We help".

Other influential newspapers including the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung and Sueddeutsche Zeitung have also devoted numerous column inches and front pages to articles backing the refugee relief cause in Germany.

Read: Germany to make extra 6 billion euros available for refugees: coalition

Europe's biggest economy is expecting to welcome 800,000 asylum-seekers in 2015, four times more than a year ago and far more than any other European country.

COMMENTS (21)

Billoo | 8 years ago | Reply Seeing all the "white" racist comments, it just makes me lose faith in humanity. German government is doing its best to create an amicable environment for the refugees. The refugees have respect and acknowledgement for this gesture by the Germans. Please be accommodating and don't push them aside just because their existence might interfere with your "perfect" life.

Mehmood Ghaznavi | 8 years ago | Reply @Vasco Degama: Ironic name choice. Did not Vasco di gamma bring his religion to Goa and force the natives to convert? Are you scared that Karma will do the same in Germany?

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Erik | 8 years ago | Reply Insanity! Daesh says they have infiltrated 4000 terrorists into Europe as refugees. When are our politicians going to wake up? Here are some of them on a train to Germany: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UpZuEmKwNjM How many must die? Is it any wonder that the "realistic" Eastern European states don't want to make the same mistakes made by the Western European states?

wb | 8 years ago | Reply @Aik_Paki: "I am surprised to see so many racist comments by these so called white’s from the West. " For a Pakistani, speaking the truth is hate and racist. The truth is racist, hateful Mulims have never accommodated Muslims from troubled country in the history of universe, UNLESS, there's a great deal of selfishness in accommodating them.

Aik_German | 8 years ago | Reply @Aik_Paki - What's racist about this?Ask any non-Muslim and he will recount how scary it is to live amongst regressive cavemen...

Aik_Paki | 8 years ago | Reply I am surprised to see so many racist comments by these so called white's from the West. All of them have forgotten the origins of all the White's currently living in USA, Canada, Australia and Newzealand. Their Grand/grand parents were also immigrants and on the top of that they have taken over the wealth from indigenous Indians. Arabs will be just migrants and hopefully they will work hard like most Indians, Asians, chinese and Muslims do in USA, Canada, Australia, UK and Newzealand.

Gary | 8 years ago | Reply @G Bailey: you may be correct G Bailey I thin it will be a generation or two down the road when all the do gooder's children and grandchildren will have to deal with this

Arnold Ripkin | 8 years ago | Reply My question to those wanting to accept these cowards not willing to fight evil in their own homeland is. Where do the cowards run when there's no place left to run? Muslims want to completely dominate the earth. This is no secret. Where will the 2+ billion go if no one is willing to fight the invaders? We're running out of space.

Rob | 8 years ago | Reply These are not refugees. If they were just fleeing the war in Syria they could have stayed in Turkey. But the Muslim countries don't want them. These Muslims do NOT assimilate into western culture. Go see what is happening on the streets of France and the UK. Protests of hate toward the western culture, on your own streets, from ungrateful foreign Muslims. How many murders will it take for Europe to wake up?

Park Digwig | 8 years ago | Reply Uh...J Nussbaum... The People who were emigrating to Germany for the most part were Germans and Ethnic Germans who were either fleeing the Russians or escaping Communism. Don't forget that these were German speaking peoples with German customs even though that that they were from such places as Romania, Russia and Poland (or East Prussia). Not for the most part people from different religions or vastly diverse cultures. The Turks that moved to Germany as Gastarbeiter have not assimilated into German society. They remain Turks living in Germany not as Germans. It will be the same for Syrians, Afghanis and what ever other Middle Eastern/ Africans flood into Germany. With their hands open and complaining that they aren't being treated fairly. Germany will deeply regret this one day in the not distant future.

Robert McCabe | 8 years ago | Reply @J Nussbaum: Except in this case they are dealing with muslims who despise them and will bring them to their knees.

James Hemingway | 8 years ago | Reply The countries accepting these Muslim immigrants should require that they convert to Christianity as a condition of asylum James

Dan, Dan Westeman | 8 years ago | Reply Germany REALLY wants to commit national suicide. Sadly, the United States is doing the same.

r_henry | 8 years ago | Reply While USA struggles with its legacy of black slavery and related issues, Germany is now struggling with its horrifically ugly Nazi past. In an effort to assuage its national guilt, it is accepting all asylum applicants in an act of generalized supplication. This grand gesture may however have the unintended result of stirring up all the ugly nationalism that empowered the Nazis 80 years ago. This is a powder keg on a slow fuse.

Argy Bargy | 8 years ago | Reply Send them all to Germany. They have plenty of room since they purged millions.

steve mcfadden | 8 years ago | Reply @J Nussbaum: This is a Trojan horse invasion and Europe is on life support. This is an invasion and the answer is to repel not invite. It's called national suicide and if it makes you feel better to know America is doing it as well.

Argy Bargy | 8 years ago | Reply A nation that has purged millions of it's citizens has plenty of room. Send them all to Germany.

Vasco Degama | 8 years ago | Reply @J Nussbaum: yes, but they weren't Muslims before. they almost never assimilate and end up trying to force their "religion" on every one else through the use of ever increasing force.

ds | 8 years ago | Reply Completely agree with G Bailey. I am from Germany. Utterly disgusted with what the gov't is doing over there. The asylum seekers are not fleeing from war, they are coming to make war with the west. It is plain as day! There have been no asylum seekers to any other middle east nation or to any eastern block nation. They are specifically going straight to Germany, France and England. WWIII will once again be fought in Europe. We also need to stand with Israel. Those who don't learn from history are bound to repeat it. Unfortunately, those who refuse to learn suck the rest of us into their pit of destruction.

J Nussbaum | 8 years ago | Reply Germany (formerly West Germany) has been dealing with different waves of immigrants in the last 60 years. After WW II about 14 million were resettled. Many of them are parents and grandparents of present-day Germans, They came with absolutely nothing, same as many refugees today. In the 60's several million workers migrated from Southern Europe / Turkey. In the 80's a wave of Eastern European with German background arrived followed by refugees from the former Yugoslavia. The 90's brought the integration of 18 million East Germans together with their destroyed country. Both the present German Chancellor and its President belong to this group. In other words Germany has been dealing with immigration for a long time. It will be difficult. There will be problems. It will change Germany. But the country has undergone numerous changes before. It can be done. And there is hope that it will be successful.

G Bailey | 8 years ago | Reply I predict that within 2 years, there will be war in the streets in Germany, France, Britain, and it will spread across Europe with a quickness. America won't be able to help, because we are having the same problems here, we're just a few years behind Europe in having a society in anarchy.

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