Big Trouble at Small Refugee Center: Ukrainian Woman Picks Fight Over Extension Cord
Information is given in Ukrainian and German language at an entrance door to a sports hall transformed into a shelter for Ukrainian refugees in the small Bavarian village of Eichenau near Munich, southern Germany, on March 24, 2022.
The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees has estimated that approximately 7.7 million people from Ukraine have arrived in Europe between February 24 and October 25, 2022. According to the UN, nearly three million arrived in Russia.According to one German newspaper, a 20-year-old female Ukrainian refugee got into a fight with staff at a temporary migrant shelter in Munich over an extension cord.The Ukrainian law student had been living at the center, which houses 250 refugees, with her 56-year-old mother since June.According to the refugee, on the day of the incident, she needed to connect to an online seminar, but the Internet was not working in the room intended for the class. She then decided to pull an extension cord into her room in case her laptop would run out of power.After a while, two security officers, a man and a woman, entered her room. The woman reached out to take the cord away from her, but the refugee shouted: “Stop, that’s mine,” whereupon she put the extension cord under the blanket and laid down on it. “A second woman came in and grabbed my arm. Others grabbed my jumper,” the Ukrainian woman said. The rest of the residents (most of them Ukrainians) started taking pictures and videos of what was happening.
WorldEnd of the Lvov Affair: Europe Tires of Ukrainian Refugees 31 October, 16:53 GMTIn pictures published by the newspaper, a young woman can be seen lying on the bed, holding her phone, being pounced on by two female security guards trying to take away an extension cord.Later on, the director of the shelter came into the room. The girl claims she resisted and cried for help, but he, according to the refugee, “did not take her under his protection.”
The refugee noted that she sustained "minor" injuries to her arm and shoulder, as well as "mental" trauma. She stated that she "no longer feels safe in the center." "I have been scared of this center ever since," the Ukrainian complained.
According to Olga Dub-Büssenschütt, a representative of the local Migration Advisory Board, there have been many complaints about the city shelter in question. “Many refugees feel discriminated against there,” she stated.The local social department expressed regret over the incident, stressing, however, that the use of extension cords in cubicles is prohibited by fire safety regulations and the Ukrainian woman refused to hand it in.Concerns have previously been voiced that German society is close to a “boiling point,” as a fresh influx of Ukrainian refugees, in addition to those who have already arrived, could pose a serious challenge to the country, which is struggling to accommodate them. An energy crisis and inflation have added to the problem of the migrant flow.
"Everyone's mood is irritated now, and boiling over is not ruled out. Tens or hundreds of thousands more refugees could arrive in Germany because of the harsh winter in Ukraine."
Frederik Paulpolitician from the federal state of North Rhine-Westphalia, leader of the CDU group in the municipal councilAccording to a poll conducted by a US media outlet, many Germans are losing their enthusiasm for helping Ukraine because of concerns about the costs of hosting refugees.
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