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Four beds stand side by side in the small room, with a fifth, small bed in the middle.
Inside is a sleeping baby.
There is no room for much more in the room.
One more cupboard, that's it.
The room opposite is no bigger either: a TV, a sofa and a mattress, toys in the corners.
Two little girls are jumping back and forth in the hallway between the rooms.
There is actually a mask requirement here.
The two rooms - the Gashi family's apartment - are located in the Refugium Birkenhof, a shared accommodation for refugees in Spandau.
The hall is used by everyone who lives on the floor.
Laminated signs on the walls remind: The AHA rules apply here.
Distance.
Hygiene.
Everyday masks.
“Most of the residents are very disciplined and sensible,” explains Jyoti Chakma, head of the Birkenhof Refugium run by the Berlin-Mitte Workers' Welfare Association (AWO).
But complying with the rules of distance and hygiene is much more difficult in a shared accommodation than anywhere else.
Home manager Jyoti Chakma in front of the asylum accommodation
Source: Marlene Gawrisch / WELT
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Again and again people step out of their rooms into the hallway - without a mask.
When they see chakma they quickly go away.
Shortly afterwards they come back - with a mask.
"I keep warning people if I catch them in the facility without a mask," says Chakma.
“What else should I do?” It doesn't sound resigned, rather pragmatic.
What is causing problems for all of Germany during the Corona crisis - compliance with hygiene measures, informing the population, homeschooling and home office, quarantine, tests and medical care - all of this increases in the collective accommodation.
Boredom is a big problem here
Hundreds of people often live here in a confined space, sharing kitchens and sanitary facilities, including bedrooms.
In the Refugium Birkenhof, the rooms are larger than average: 18 square meters for a two-bed room.
In other accommodations it is sometimes only 15 square meters.
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Before it was used as shelter for refugees, the refuge was a retirement home.
That's why the rooms have their own bathrooms.
A special feature that many accommodations cannot offer.
There are two communal kitchens on each floor.
Large rooms, empty except for a few electric stoves and sinks.
Functional, nothing more.
This is currently helpful: the kitchens do not invite you to linger.
The residents spend most of their time in their rooms.
"I go out with my children once or twice a day," says Merita Gashi, who fled Kosovo to Germany seven years ago, "we play a little in the snow, but mostly it gets boring quickly - and it's cold."
For the asylum seeker Merita Gashi from Kosovo, one thing is certain: "I will not be vaccinated"
Source: Marlene Gawrisch / WELT
Gashi lives in two rooms with her husband and three children
Source: Marlene Gawrisch / WELT
Boredom is a big problem, explains the spokesman for the State Office for Refugee Affairs (LAF) Sascha Langenbach.
“Young men in particular have so much energy.
It is difficult to just sit in the room and not see anyone. ”That could explain the infection in the accommodation.
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However, the list of the 18 residents in Chakma's accommodation who have so far been infected with corona reads differently.
For example, a grandmother and her two granddaughters, three Vietnamese friends and a family of six from Afghanistan were infected here.
Toys made by Merita Gashi's children
Source: Marlene Gawrisch / WELT
The Gashi's bathroom
Source: Marlene Gawrisch / WELT
How the Amarkhel family got infected is unclear.
In November, the father had complained of a fever.
A corona test was positive.
The whole family was then moved to quarantine accommodation.
The first such facility in Berlin opened in mid-April 2020.
A second followed on December 14th.
They are container villages.
Here, too, pragmatism was the top priority.
LAF spokesman Sascha Langenbach draws a positive balance of the quarantine measures
Source: Marlene Gawrisch / WORLD / MARLENE GAWRISCH
“Of course it's not nice there,” says Langenbach.
The isolation, the security, the personnel in protective suits, none of this is optimal.
But: "The quarantine accommodations made it possible to limit contagion to a great extent." Asylum seekers could isolate themselves better there than in the communal accommodations and received the necessary medical care.
So far this option is only available in Berlin.
The Amarkhel family found the stay in the quarantine accommodation depressing, as the son says.
The 16-year-old Rahil looks serious and grown up when he speaks for his family.
He understands the measure: “It's good that we were there.
We didn't infect anyone like that. "
Medical staff spoke to them and informed them every day.
After two weeks they were able to return to the Birkenhof Refugium.
Nobody was seriously ill.
"Of course it is stressful that the families cannot stay in their home", explains home manager Chakma, "but under the given circumstances there is no other way."
Because it has been shown: Without quarantine accommodation, the situation is worse.
This became clear not only during the first corona wave, when entire accommodations were often quarantined.
More fear, more work
"Such a measure does not offer any protection for non-infected residents," explains Georg Classen from the Berlin Refugee Council.
“On the contrary: you are more likely to be endangered.
How are they supposed to isolate themselves from the infected residents when they share bathrooms and kitchens?
In addition, this form of quarantine is illegal.
On the one hand, because sick and healthy people are not separated - as prescribed by the Infection Protection Act - and on the other hand because it is a matter of deprivation of liberty without a court order. "
The house rules of the refuge
Source: Marlene Gawrisch / WELT
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To this day, entire accommodations across Germany are still being quarantined, most recently in Cologne, for example.
In November there had also been a case like this in Berlin.
A number of residents were infected in a communal accommodation run by the AWO.
Since the only quarantine accommodation in Berlin at the time was temporarily full, infected residents and their contact persons could not find accommodation there.
An attempt was made to break the chain of infection by isolating a hallway.
However, shared sanitary facilities and kitchens prevented individuals or families from being effectively isolated.
Risk patients were also accommodated in a separate corridor.
Alternative housing offers could not be organized.
Last spring, the Berlin Refugee Council demanded that people at particular risk be moved to accommodations with their own cooking and sanitary facilities.
In addition, the occupancy density should be reduced overall.
The Birkenhof Refugium is currently 88 percent occupied: 323 people live there, 381 can be accommodated.
A look into the washroom
Source: Marlene Gawrisch / WELT
Around 20 AWO employees look after the asylum seekers there.
For employees, Corona means above all: more fear, more work.
“You always have to weigh up the social and your own health,” says Abdulmanaf Saeed.
He has been a social worker at AWO for eight years.
Reducing contacts and keeping your distance is impossible in his job.
Social worker Abdulmanaf Saeed is a confidante for many refugees
Source: Marlene Gawrisch / WELT
For many refugees, Saeed is a confidante.
The children call him uncle.
“I put my contact details on the door of my office, but people prefer to come by in person,” he says.
So Saeed has conversations with the window open - even at minus eight degrees.
The need for discussion is high due to Corona.
Official visits cannot be carried out as usual.
Much is now running online, via email or phone.
The refugees need support in the bureaucratic jungle.
"Actually, our goal is to help them cope themselves," explains Saeed, "but that is currently not possible."
Often the children help the parents with learning
Because even if Corona has paralyzed the economy, public life and schools: the bureaucracy does not stand still.
Merita Gashi's tolerance is only valid until mid-May.
Until then, she must have had a training position, otherwise she and her family will be deported.
Back to Kosovo, which her children don't even know.
She can only get a training position if she can prove that she has a B1 level of German.
To do this, she takes a course - online of course.
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Many families learn in shifts.
In the mornings the children attend online lessons, in the afternoons the parents attend the German courses.
Often the children help the parents, not the other way around.
A communal kitchen in the home
Source: Marlene Gawrisch / WELT
Source: Marlene Gawrisch / WELT
So does Rahil Amarkhel: he often translates for his father.
And is currently completing his secondary school diploma - on the cell phone.
He doesn't have a laptop or tablet.
A survey by the State Office for Refugee Affairs in 51 accommodations showed that many of the almost 2,700 school-age children feel the same way.
50 percent need an end device.
So far, only 20 percent have received one from their school.
The accommodation operators have now been able to cover part of the need with donations.
Another problem: the WiFi coverage.
Alexander Straßmeir, President of the State Office, explains: “We know that we have to raise the standards.
But that takes time. ”Not only is bureaucracy in the way of the rapid expansion of WLAN, but also architecture: In some buildings there are technical difficulties.
56 accommodations currently have WiFi in the rooms.
Access to six others is currently being expanded.
The technology is far from everything.
Before Corona, child care was an important part of the care in the Birkenhof Refugium, reports home manager Chakma: a relief for the parents, school and mental support for the children.
Now the families are on their own.
Home manager Chakma had to stop childcare due to Corona
Source: Marlene Gawrisch / WELT
If the parents are working or learning German, older siblings often take care of younger ones.
Help with homework must be organized online.
In some accommodations, children are looked after in small groups in shifts.
Initially, Chakma and his colleagues had also tried to keep the offers for children going.
But then one of the caregivers fell ill with Corona - seriously.
Since then there has been no more childcare in the Refugium Birkenhof.
The children roam alone through the corridors, graffiti and laminated information posters on the walls.
When the sun is shining, they play outside: not too many at once, not too close together.
"There is also vaccine skepticism among refugees"
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The next mammoth task that everyone faces is vaccination.
The Robert Koch Institute has placed “people who live or work in refugee and homeless facilities” in group 2 of vaccination prioritization: high priority.
Similar to residents of retirement and nursing homes, the residents are exposed to a particular risk due to the spatial situation.
Even if nobody knows when exactly it will start and how vaccinations will be given, the state office tries to prepare the residents.
At the beginning of the second wave, a podcast provided information on Corona in 13 languages.
Now they are planning a new series of programs on vaccination.
Notices for the home residents - for example on the subject of asylum advice
Source: Marlene Gawrisch / WELT
“There is also a lack of vaccination among refugees,” explains Langenbach.
“Many may have had bad experiences with government interventions, we suspect.
There are signs of this among Eastern Europeans. ”But there are also concerns among people from the Arab region.
The fact that Al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden was allegedly discovered through a large vaccination campaign certainly played a role.
Saeed believes that the skepticism has other causes: "Refugees get information online - just like everyone else," explains Saeed. "They also come across fake news on social media." Often people come to him with concerns and questions.
Then he has to explain that Corona has nothing to do with the 5G network.
Family man Mohamad Eisa Amarkhel is not sure whether he would like to be vaccinated.
Although he looks at the "Tagesschau" and read on the Internet, he would like more information about the vaccine.
He has not heard the State Office's podcasts.
Source: Marlene Gawrisch / WELT
Merita Gashi does not find out about these offers either.
She has already made a decision: “I will not be vaccinated.
I'm afraid of Corona, but I'm even more afraid of the vaccination. ”She saw videos showing people who felt very bad after the vaccination.
That put them off.
There are currently around 18,700 refugees living in the LAF accommodations in Berlin.
1337 have tested positive for Corona since March 2020.
Four died.