Section:GDN BE PaGe:17 Edition Date:160901 Edition:01 Zone: Sent at 31/8/2016 20:57 cYanmaGentaYellowblack

The Guardian | Thursday 1 September 2016 * 17 Head of international news: Jamie Wilson [email protected] 020 3353 3577 @guardianworld International Bridge or barrier: how Bavarian town is coping with its refugee crisis a year on

A Europe without borders is just a memory as the infl ux of migrants polarises locals

Philip Oltermann Janek Schmidt Freilassing Two centuries ago, after the Napoleonic wars had laid waste to much of central Europe, the continent’s rulers decided to redraw the border between Austria and Germany along the river Saalach, between Salzburg and one of its suburbs, now a Bavarian town called Freilassing. When Austria joined the Schengen area in 1995, the border in eff ect became obsolete: only a short white line in the middle of the motorway bridge still marks the division between the two countries. But a year ago , the Freilassing bridge once again become a symbol of barriers between nations and cultures. On 5 September 2015 – a day after Germany’s Angela Merkel and the Austrian chancellor, Werner Faymann, had decided to accept thousands of refugees stranded at Budapest station – it was here that about 400 refugees on board a train got their fi rst glimpse of Germany. And it was on Freilassing bridge that a week later thousands of refugees found themselves stranded once again after Germany’s interior minister, Thomas de Maizière, reintroduced border checks that continue sporadically to this day, unleashing scenes that have divided the The reinstated border town in more ways than one. border between Rainer Borchers, 38, returned from Germany and his night shift as a hospital nurse in Austria on the the early hours to fi nd hundreds of Freilassing people camped outside his home on the bridge, above. Bavarian bank of the Saalach. Clockwise from “These people were in a lot of right, Rainer need: they were exhausted, thirsty Borchers; and hungry. As a nurse, I want to help Syrian refugee people, so I let them use my car park, Khaled Misho; my toilet and gave pregnant women a a German boy chance to rest in my camper van.” and his friend Borchers helped for a week, after from Pakistan; which he grew critical of the situation and migrants on his doorstep. He claimed he was spat outside their at and threatened with a knife when temporary home handing out bottles of water, and one Photograph: night heard shots on the bridge – police Jens Schwarz insist the banging sound was created by for the Guardian a van running over a traffi c cone. “ Generators were running 24 hours and made my bedroom vibrate. I bought this house with my own money, and as a carer it’s not like I earn €5,000 a month.” Borchers said he remembered “positive moments” from his week of volunteering, but in the coming weeks he became more and more disillusioned. “I’ve never had anything to do with it is to live in a Europe without borders. helped, but a few times it turned out stay in Austria or have to make their way politics but I called the Social Democrats We should talk about that more often.” that the presumed Syrians didn’t speak ‘People back across the Saalach river elsewhere. to complain, I called the mayor of While he would not put his name to any Arabic at all. I have no idea where have told “In Freilassing it may feel like the Freilassing, and I called the district 1,500 Merkel’s credo during the crisis – Wir they were from, but certainly not from refugee crisis has stopped – in Salzburg offi ce, but none of them would listen to schaff en das, (“we will manage”) – he Syria as they had claimed.” me that I it is now starting”, said Karl-Heinz me.” Then, he said, he called Germany’s did not disagree either. “We are a strong Since then, the number of arrivals has Müller, a pensioner in nearby Fridolfi ng, new rightwing, anti-immigration party, country, and we can manage a lot.” fallen considerably. Germany’s federal should not who played a key role last September . Alternative für Deutschland (AfD), “and The number of Khaled Misho might agree. Having refugee agency says no more than 40 be here but As the weather turned , Müller, 77, they took the time to listen.” He has migrants arriving arrived in Germany in 2014, the refugees and migrants a day arrive at recalled seeing mothers with babies since joined the party. on the bridge from 21-year-old Syrian shares a room with Freilassing’s reception centre. The I always waiting on the bridge for days on end, On 24 October, more than 1,000 AfD Salzburg every three other young men, in a spacious shelter, in a former furniture factory, unwilling to move for fear of losing their protesters and hundreds of counter- day at the height three- storey house with a little garden was at an “operative minimum”. answer in place in the queue. “I was so immensely protesters demonstrated against of the refugee that is home to 60 refugees who have Misho said: “We are lucky here in German’ sad about our collective inertia.” Merkel’s “illegal” crisis management crisis last year been located here while their asylum our house with the refugees, as there Then Müller, who ran an analytical A year on, Borchers said, his town applications are being processed. The is some green space in front and we all Khaled Misho chemical company , decided that “since feels “scarred”. “My neighbourhood is ground fl oor is just for men ; one side get along well with each other. I am still you couldn’t rely on the police, you had divided between left and right – there’s is for Arab ic speakers, mainly from really grateful to Germany that I can to use your brain”. With a marker pen, nothing in between. You are either pro- Syria , the other for those speaking other be here and there are a lot of people in he drew a fat A on the wrists of the fi rst refugee or against.” languages, most of them Africans . town who are happy to help us .” 10 people in the queue . The next 10 got But the mayor, Josef Flatscher, said Last September and October, when Some people in Freilassing, Misho a B, the next 10 a C, and so on. Soon, describing Freilassing as a town divided about 1,500 refugees arrived on the said – “maybe one in fi ve” – seemed less Müller was on to decimal places. was “completely over the top”. Last bridge from Salzburg every day, Misho happy. “A few times people have even After a few days, a local paper likened September the politician, part of the had been there for almost a year and told me that I shouldn’t be here. But Müller’s system to the Nazis tattooing conservative Bavarian Christian Social spoke basic German. “So I went to then I just answer them in German and Jewish prisoners in a concentration Union party, was driving back from a the bridge to support volunteers who then they are intimidated and confusedd camp, which angered him. “All we family holiday in Italy when he heard distributed food and clothes and to help by the fact that I speak German . That iss were trying to do was to create a of the resumption of border checks with translations . Both German offi cials my best way to defend myself.” just, fair system.” Salzburg’s deputy between Austria and Germany on the and refugees seemed grateful when I Now Misho is starting a new job in mayor eventually donated coloured radio. But when he drove across the a restaurant at Chiemsee, a nearby wristbands, which he used instead. bridge into his hometown an hour later, lake and tourist destination. He would After months of volunteering, there were no border guards to be seen. 50 miles mainly be preparing salads, he said, butut often sleeping for a few hours a Only the next morning, local police Frankfurt hoped he could work his way up. night in a makeshift bed , Müller is set up makeshift patrols on the bridge. Yet not every refugee who made aambivalent about the future, pulled By the afternoon, they were replaced Germany it across the bridge has reason to be bbetween sympathy for anyone trying with the national police force, who still hopeful. Though police on the bridge to make their way to Germany and carry out sporadic border checks . only carry out sporadic spot checks , understanding for those worried about Freilassing A year on, Flatscher feels reassured border control has in eff ect been movedd immigration. “You have to respect Vienna about Freilassing but points to 6,500 Munich inland to the migrant reception centress . everyone who doesn’t want more migrants being rescued off Libya on one Salzburg Those who cannot show a passport rerefugees. We can manage this but only if day this week. “This isn’t going to stop or an intention to apply for asylum are tthe population at large is involved .” completely. But next time we’ll know Austria sent back to Austria – in August, Germanan He plans to set up a museum with how to deal with the situation.” police returned 300 migrants from hhis archive of documents and children’s The traffi c jams on the bridge, the Freilassing to Salzburg. With the Balkann drawings . “Someone has keep the mayor said, “made us realise how great Italy route now closed, many are forced to sstory of what happened here alive.”