A housing service called Refugees Welcome connects refugees and citizens willing to share their homes. The German ‘Airbnb’ has been overwhelmed by offers of support as European citizens have decided to take matters in their own hands where leaders have failed.
WORST REFUGEE CRISIS SINCE THE SECOND WORLD WAR
Europe is facing a record wave of refugees seeking protection – many of them from war-torn Syria. Germany is the top destination for migrants from outside the European Union and expects to take in 800,000 this year – more than the total number who entered the EU in 2014.
The decision has not been universally popular, and German Chancellor Angela Merkel was greeted with boos last week at a shelter for asylum seekers, BBC reports. The shelter was the setting of violent clashes.
SHARE HOMES WITH REFUGEES
From families in Iceland seeking to pressure their own governments, to a Facebook bicycling group set up by a Syrian refugee to help fellow co-nationals arriving in Berlin adjust to their new lives, the internet is creating connections rather than building walls amid the refugee crisis.
Mareike Geiling and Jonas Kakoschke decided to develop the Refugees Welcome website because they found themselves opposing the way Germany treats recently arrived asylum seekers. The country has struggled to find places to house refugees and one German city went as far as to propose housing refugees in an old Nazi concentration camp.
“Many asylum-seekers have to stay [in Europe] for years … doing nothing, because they are not allowed to do anything,” Kakoschke told NPR earlier this year. “They are not allowed to work, they are not allowed to have German classes sometimes, and sometimes it’s not a city, it’s a village, and there’s nothing to do and so you get depressed after years and stuff like this.”
MUCH MORE THAN A ROOMMATE-FINDING SERVICE
The website has already helped 134 people, from countries including Syria, Afghanistan, Somalia, and Burkina Faso, find a home in Germany and Austria. As of April 2015, more than 780 Germans had signed up to provide assistance, with users’ ages ranging from 21 to 65.
A 39-year-old new roommate from Mali moved in the founders’ apartment. He pays his $430 share of the rent through donations. Rents for the refugees are a minimum of three months and are covered by job centers and social welfare as well as micro-donations to the website, according to the Telegraph.co.uk.
HUMAN CULTURE OF WELCOMING REFUGEES
“We are convinced that refugees should not be stigmatized and excluded by being housed in mass accommodations. Instead, we should offer them a warm welcome. We believe we can establish a more humane culture of welcoming refugees!,” the website reads.
Different countries within Europe such as Greece, Portugal and Scotland, but also organizations from Australia and the US have shown interests in this “Airbnb-for-a-cause”.
Would you host refugees in your home? Share your views in the comments section below.
