Diasporia News of Monday, 23 February 2004
Source: DW
Twenty-eight year old Letifica Anyomum came to Germany from Ghana. She has been living here for six months. In a rather agitated manner, she washes up a cup in the sink, dries it ? only to wash it once more.
?I came (to) Germany because they want to circumcize me in my village," she said. "I would stay with my parents but they died. My mother gave birth to me when I was very small, my mother died. I was staying with my uncle he also died. Nobody was taking good care of me. The committee member said they want to circumcize me 'cause I have to marry with an old man. And I cannot because of the pain of the knife."
Every year, German authorities evict some 50,000 foreigners who were denied the right to stay in Germany. Before deportation, refugees caught without valid documents are put in remand. Many of them are women.
When the prison officer locks the massive door at the detention center in the German city of Neuss, waiting is all that's left to do.
"It`s not easy, six months in prison," said Letifica Anyomum, one of the prisoners. "I did not kill anybody, I didn?t cause any murder, nothing. Just because I want asylum they keep me a long time."
Eighty women from South America, Asia and Africa ? among them disturbed and pregnant women as well as girls ? share 36 cells. It?s become a center for all the stranded who have to wait behind bars although they haven?t committed any offences. Even those who guard them don't know what will happen to them.
?We are only the executing authority," said Klaus-Peter Schmidt, a prison officer. "Our only task is to keep them in custody until they are being repatriated. What happens in the meantime, we can?t tell. At one point we will get a fax which tells us, this woman is going to be deported.?
Cell No. 23 measures some nine square meters (97 square feet). Only a little light falls through the tiny window onto the bunk bed. Behind a shower curtain is a toilet, on a table next to it is today?s lunch: meat and dumplings ? all of it still untouched. The TV is on.