Sometimes it’s homesick, sometimes the desire to die in your old homeland: if refugees want to go back, they are supported by the German Red Cross (DRK)’s perspective and return counseling service.
It was sometime in the 1990s when the two met: Sadik Hassan (82) was working in the district office for asylum at the time. There he offered support for people who had applied for asylum, some of whom, like him, were from Iraq. That was also the case with the 76-year-old man who, being illiterate from humble backgrounds, had a particularly difficult time here from the start. Sadik Hassan continued to take care of him on a voluntary basis even after he stopped working. A year ago the man had a stroke, now he needed a wheelchair and care and was dependent on constant help. At some point it became clear: the man wanted to go back to Iraq to his brother’s family.
It was Sadik Hassan who took over the organization – together with the perspective and return counseling of the DRK. There was a lot to do: the man needed a legal guardian who could close his German bank account and take care of his pension entitlements. The apartment had to be given notice and the flight to Baghdad arranged. He needed replacement papers to leave the country, a taxi to the airport in Frankfurt and someone to accompany him during the flight.
And at least for the first time in Iraq, medicines, a wheelchair and some money had to be procured – that went slowly, says Sadik Hassan: The International Organization for Migration (IOM) of the United Nations is responsible for this, but the supply did not work for weeks. Later, the man will be left to his own devices in Iraq anyway – but despite the much worse health situation there compared to Germany, Sadik Hassan says he wanted to return to his old homeland.
Gabriele Ulsamer from the DRK Perspective and Return Counseling experiences such cases again and again – often the return is a worsening of the living situation: “Nevertheless, many people go this way because they are homesick.”
The DRK advisory service is an important point of contact for the many steps required to leave the country: A social work team that shares 2.2 full-time positions offers support as soon as someone thinks about moving back to their country of origin. Kerstin Schlechtendahl, Head of the Migration and Integration Department, emphasizes that it is very important that “the advice is always open-ended.” This also applies to those who are asked to leave the country by the German authorities. Return counseling always includes the search for new perspectives to stay, if those affected wish that. Funding for return counseling has been running for many years through new projects, until the end of 2024 through the European Asylum, Migration and Integration Fund. The current focus is on families, unaccompanied minors, people with criminal records, the sick and people with disabilities. Since the project began in early 2022, 89 people have received advice, 61 of them women. Two thirds came from the district of Breisgau-Hochschwarzwald, one third from Freiburg, but Freiburg contributed 10,000 euros to the financing, twice as much as the district of Breisgau-Hochschwarzwald. The people who have been advised so far come from 32 different countries, from Afghanistan or China to Georgia or Turkey to Somalia or Uzbekistan. In some countries, for example if their consulates are difficult to reach, the support of compatriots who, like Sadik Hassan, volunteer and know their way around, is particularly important.
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