In the six years since she began caring for refugees, Bianka Huber has been through a lot. The height of the refugee crisis. The problems caused by COVID-19. The disaster in Afghanistan. Bianka Huber and her team have delved deep into German legal regulations regarding work permits and residence permits. They’ve been able to save some of their clients from deportation. “It’s a Sisyphean task,” says Bianka. But despite some frustration, the door to the counseling center Der Laden is always open.
A Warm Jacket for Winter
Since 2016, people have been coming here to this IG Metall drop-in center. They have experienced hardship and violence and were forced to leave their homeland. Bianka and her team of volunteers listen to them. They try to untangle the threads. Many of these displaced people get tangled up in German bureaucracy. They need help understanding what the Foreigners’ Registration Office, the Employment Agency, and health insurance companies want from them with their complicated forms. “Der Laden” offers legal counseling, German language courses, and career counseling. People from 54 countries have already turned to this center for help.
Take Aron from Syria, for example. He fled Syria in 2016 after being held captive and tortured there for five years. Following a bombing that destroyed the prison, he managed to escape and made his way to Germany via Hungary—on foot. In no time at all, he passed the required language exams. “Without the center and IG Metall, I wouldn’t have been able to do it,” says Aron. “On my first day at the center, Bianka gave me a warm jacket. I was incredibly happy.” Aron has now started an apprenticeship at Frankfurt Airport. A fresh start at the age of 39. At work, he benefits from the seven languages he speaks: Kurdish, Hebrew, Arabic, English, German, Turkish, and French.
Languages, in general. They are the key to the counseling center’s success. Bianka’s team covers an incredibly broad spectrum of languages, including some less common ones: Dari, Farsi, Pashto, Urdu, Tigrinya, Russian, and Georgian. Anyone who comes here has a good chance of truly being understood.
Flight to Freedom
Tamana, a young doctor from Afghanistan, fled Afghanistan for Germany in August. She was one of the few lucky ones who made it to the airport grounds before foreign troops handed the country over to the Taliban. Tamana witnessed desperate people clinging to a departing U.S. military aircraft and plummeting to their deaths from a great height. Sitting on the floor of a German transport plane, she flew to freedom along with hundreds of her compatriots.
A couple who fled Afghanistan. Photo: Martina Helmerich
She spent her first days and weeks in Germany in a state of shock. On the one hand, she is happy to be safe with her husband. On the other hand, she is deeply worried about her father and brother, who must continue to hide and fear for their lives. Tamana is now trying to learn German and find her way around somehow. She gets help at the store. Pouya, one of the staff members at the counseling center, is from Afghanistan and speaks her language. That helps her cope with her traumatic experiences.
Help from the organization Helfen. Hilft. Punkt!
There are many people who receive concrete help at the store. With the help of the organization “Helfen. Hilft. Punkt!”, families are saved from homelessness. Refugees who have only been granted temporary residence status receive German lessons here. In several cases, the costs for the recognition of foreign school and vocational certificates were covered. There are 1,700 individual stories of people who have sought help at the store. Bianka and her close colleague Yordanos, a refugee from Eritrea, know them all.
Regina (right) and Aron at the counseling center “Der Laden” with Bianka Huber and her colleague Yordanos (left). Photo by Frank Rumpenhorst
Regina, 42, from Nigeria, also turned here for help. Her husband, Peter, suffered a stroke a few weeks ago and fell into a coma after a brain hemorrhage. Regina lives with their two children in Alicante, Spain. She gets by with a job on a tomato farm. Because of his illness, Peter could no longer send money to the family. Regina left the children in the care of a friend and flew to Frankfurt to be with her husband, who has undergone several surgeries and remains in the hospital. It is uncertain whether Peter will ever be able to work again. The counseling center is supporting the family in this emergency as best it can. “Without Bianka and the center, I would be desperate,” says Regina.
The store is a project of IGMetall and the association Helfen. Hilft. Punkt! Anyone who would like to support the organization’s work can become a member and donate to IBAN DE33 5019 0000 7900 0152 53.
