Post by Editor on Mar 9, 2013 8:42:36 GMT
My warning to Britain: Why the left-wing mayor of German town wants you to see what happened when Romanian migrants moved in
Gangs of migrants congregate around the town's tower blocks in intimidating fashion
400 Romanians and Bulgarians have moved into one tower block
Neighbourhood is now a hotspot for crime and anti-social behaviour
Duisburg council tell Britain to be on their guard as the migrants will move to take advantage of our benefits system
By LOUISE ECCLES
PUBLISHED: 23:21, 8 March 2013 | UPDATED: 00:19, 9 March 2013
Softly-spoken pensioner Marlene Bothge seems an unlikely owner of a 200,000-volt stun gun, but after her neighbours stole the light bulbs from the corridor of the seven-storey tower block in which she used to live, she no longer felt safe without it.
‘I am sad it has come to this’, she says. ‘This is a weapon young people carry, not 65-year-old women. I should not feel threatened in my own home.’
As we talk outside the crumbling tower block, now surrounded by rubbish, discarded furniture and human excrement, Mrs Bothge fidgets nervously with her long grey plait. This was her home for 18 years until she and her husband moved out of their fifth-floor flat in November when the filth, noise and crime became unbearable.
Feared: Gangs of Romanian migrants now congregate in areas of Duisburg which has forced many German inhabitants out
In the past 12 months, 400 Romanians and Bulgarians have moved into the block of 46 flats in Rheinhausen, a once-respectable suburb of the German city of Duisburg. Local officials claim they have migrated here en masse in anticipation of the social welfare they will be entitled to next year.
From January 2014, all 29 million citizens of Romania and Bulgaria will gain full rights to live, work and claim benefits here under EU ‘freedom of movement’ rules.
At last! Tories see sense on aid: Cash will go to UK firms investing abroad - not corrupt regimes
Many of the German city’s new residents are Roma gypsies who have travelled here together from the villages of Fântânele, in Romania, in search of a better life. Those villages are now deserted, while in Duisburg, flats designed for families of three or four have up to 15 people squeezed into them. For this, they pay £350-a-month — seemingly biding their time for the next ten months.
Unable to work or speak German, and with the schools already full, the Romanians and Bulgarians congregate in their dozens outside the tower block each day. The neighbourhood is now a hotspot for crime and anti-social behaviour.
Bad attitude: This gypsy boy shows his disdain at being snapped, while right, Roma woman Maria Marin (in headscarf) would like to come to the UK next year
The block — known by its address, 3-5 In Den Peschen — had never been one of Duisburg’s more luxurious dwellings, but for years it was kept in good order by its houseproud German residents. Gradually they have nearly all moved out as the new arrivals have moved in. There are now only three German families left. Housewife Mrs Bothge quietly explains why.
‘They defecate and urinate in the corridors and the stairwells — the adults and the children,’ she says of the Bulgarians and Romanians. ‘The men play card games outside the flats and, if they need the toilet, they just pull their trousers down and do their business right there. They have working toilets so I cannot understand it.
‘The stairwell became so dirty that I didn’t want my children to visit anymore. There were rats everywhere and the noise was so bad at night. They stripped the corridors of everything. The paintings and plants I had bought to make it look nice, even my mop when I left it outside for 15 minutes.’
As she speaks, children run around the grounds beneath the tower block playing and screaming, while groups of men — one man carries a crowbar — sit on the walls drinking red wine from the bottle. The women shout to one another from their balconies, occasionally throwing bottles and packaging on to the ground below. The children are so used to being hit by debris that they shield their heads as they run beneath the balconies.
Danger zone: Bottles and debris are thrown from the overcrowded balconies
A girl of seven or eight walks along a row of cars nearby and checks the door handle on each one. Perhaps it is a child’s innocent game. Perhaps not. The stench of human waste hangs in the air.
As we approach the block to take some photographs of Mrs Bothge, a group of young men runs over to us, shouting: ‘Go away grey-hair. It’s not good for you here. You go! Now!’ We quickly withdraw.
The mother-of-two is too nervous to have her picture taken that day. While still in the tower block, the Bothges lived in fear of being burgled or mugged. Mrs Bothge bought the stun gun and pepper spray for protection. Four months ago, when a neighbour tried to pick the lock on their flat door, the couple finally gave up and moved to another rented flat.
Nevertheless, Mrs Bothge says she does not blame the Romanian and Bulgarian people, but the European policy-makers. ‘They do not integrate into German society because they have no jobs, they do not speak the language and the children are not in school,’ she says.
‘We do not want them to go away, we know they are poor, but money needs to be spent to help them integrate. We feel let down by the EU. They should have realised this would happen when they opened the doors to such poor countries.’
With no means of earning money, police say some Romanians and Bulgarians are turning to crime — or using their children to commit crimes. Police officer Hanna Beuckmann says pick-pocketing and prostitution is now ‘a big problem’ locally, while the council admits some residents ‘have been mugged two or three times and are scared to go out’.
Last week Soeren Link, the city’s Left-wing mayor, made global headlines when he said the Romanians and Bulgarians were dumping piles of rubbish ‘taller than I am’ and sending their children on ‘stealing missions’.
He was ‘quite sure’ that most of the 6,700 Romanians and Bulgarians in Duisburg — population 488,000 — were aware of the social welfare they will be entitled to in the New Year. ‘I expect most of them will claim benefits’, he said.
Many are uneducated or unskilled, and will struggle to find work in a city where unemployment is at 16 per cent. Yet they arrive at a rate of 200 every month. The council estimates that from next year it will cost £15 million a year to house and feed them. The city is now appealing to the EU for financial help to cope with the influx.
Mr Link believes that Britain — known for its similarly generous welfare system — will also suffer the ‘consequences of opening the EU to these states’.
Retired architect Hans Halle, 65, and his wife Helga, 63, live in a six-bedroom house opposite the eyesore at 3-5 In Den Peschen. Last month, they learned that their £200,000 home had plummeted in value to £78,000 in a single year, following the arrival of the Romanians and Bulgarians.
The Halles had planned to downsize after their children moved out, but can no longer afford to do so. Grandmother Mrs Halle says: ‘A year ago this was a normal area but it is now a slum. We feel defeated and we feel angry at the EU.’ The Halles feel terrified in their own home and have been spat at, threatened and had their car vandalised.
‘The women here don’t go out at night. I even call my husband to escort me from the car to our front door. It’s not a life any more.’
The tower block is owned by Branco Baresic, the owner of Duisburg’s largest brothel, Sexxx Palace. Mr Baresic, an overweight man with a manicured beard and a black trench coat, arrives at the flats once a month to collect his rent in cash from the ‘head’ of the community.
www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2290480/Romanian-migrants-blamed-rise-crime-German-town-Duisburg.html
Gangs of migrants congregate around the town's tower blocks in intimidating fashion
400 Romanians and Bulgarians have moved into one tower block
Neighbourhood is now a hotspot for crime and anti-social behaviour
Duisburg council tell Britain to be on their guard as the migrants will move to take advantage of our benefits system
By LOUISE ECCLES
PUBLISHED: 23:21, 8 March 2013 | UPDATED: 00:19, 9 March 2013
Softly-spoken pensioner Marlene Bothge seems an unlikely owner of a 200,000-volt stun gun, but after her neighbours stole the light bulbs from the corridor of the seven-storey tower block in which she used to live, she no longer felt safe without it.
‘I am sad it has come to this’, she says. ‘This is a weapon young people carry, not 65-year-old women. I should not feel threatened in my own home.’
As we talk outside the crumbling tower block, now surrounded by rubbish, discarded furniture and human excrement, Mrs Bothge fidgets nervously with her long grey plait. This was her home for 18 years until she and her husband moved out of their fifth-floor flat in November when the filth, noise and crime became unbearable.
Feared: Gangs of Romanian migrants now congregate in areas of Duisburg which has forced many German inhabitants out
In the past 12 months, 400 Romanians and Bulgarians have moved into the block of 46 flats in Rheinhausen, a once-respectable suburb of the German city of Duisburg. Local officials claim they have migrated here en masse in anticipation of the social welfare they will be entitled to next year.
From January 2014, all 29 million citizens of Romania and Bulgaria will gain full rights to live, work and claim benefits here under EU ‘freedom of movement’ rules.
At last! Tories see sense on aid: Cash will go to UK firms investing abroad - not corrupt regimes
Many of the German city’s new residents are Roma gypsies who have travelled here together from the villages of Fântânele, in Romania, in search of a better life. Those villages are now deserted, while in Duisburg, flats designed for families of three or four have up to 15 people squeezed into them. For this, they pay £350-a-month — seemingly biding their time for the next ten months.
Unable to work or speak German, and with the schools already full, the Romanians and Bulgarians congregate in their dozens outside the tower block each day. The neighbourhood is now a hotspot for crime and anti-social behaviour.
Bad attitude: This gypsy boy shows his disdain at being snapped, while right, Roma woman Maria Marin (in headscarf) would like to come to the UK next year
The block — known by its address, 3-5 In Den Peschen — had never been one of Duisburg’s more luxurious dwellings, but for years it was kept in good order by its houseproud German residents. Gradually they have nearly all moved out as the new arrivals have moved in. There are now only three German families left. Housewife Mrs Bothge quietly explains why.
‘They defecate and urinate in the corridors and the stairwells — the adults and the children,’ she says of the Bulgarians and Romanians. ‘The men play card games outside the flats and, if they need the toilet, they just pull their trousers down and do their business right there. They have working toilets so I cannot understand it.
‘The stairwell became so dirty that I didn’t want my children to visit anymore. There were rats everywhere and the noise was so bad at night. They stripped the corridors of everything. The paintings and plants I had bought to make it look nice, even my mop when I left it outside for 15 minutes.’
As she speaks, children run around the grounds beneath the tower block playing and screaming, while groups of men — one man carries a crowbar — sit on the walls drinking red wine from the bottle. The women shout to one another from their balconies, occasionally throwing bottles and packaging on to the ground below. The children are so used to being hit by debris that they shield their heads as they run beneath the balconies.
Danger zone: Bottles and debris are thrown from the overcrowded balconies
A girl of seven or eight walks along a row of cars nearby and checks the door handle on each one. Perhaps it is a child’s innocent game. Perhaps not. The stench of human waste hangs in the air.
As we approach the block to take some photographs of Mrs Bothge, a group of young men runs over to us, shouting: ‘Go away grey-hair. It’s not good for you here. You go! Now!’ We quickly withdraw.
The mother-of-two is too nervous to have her picture taken that day. While still in the tower block, the Bothges lived in fear of being burgled or mugged. Mrs Bothge bought the stun gun and pepper spray for protection. Four months ago, when a neighbour tried to pick the lock on their flat door, the couple finally gave up and moved to another rented flat.
Nevertheless, Mrs Bothge says she does not blame the Romanian and Bulgarian people, but the European policy-makers. ‘They do not integrate into German society because they have no jobs, they do not speak the language and the children are not in school,’ she says.
‘We do not want them to go away, we know they are poor, but money needs to be spent to help them integrate. We feel let down by the EU. They should have realised this would happen when they opened the doors to such poor countries.’
With no means of earning money, police say some Romanians and Bulgarians are turning to crime — or using their children to commit crimes. Police officer Hanna Beuckmann says pick-pocketing and prostitution is now ‘a big problem’ locally, while the council admits some residents ‘have been mugged two or three times and are scared to go out’.
Last week Soeren Link, the city’s Left-wing mayor, made global headlines when he said the Romanians and Bulgarians were dumping piles of rubbish ‘taller than I am’ and sending their children on ‘stealing missions’.
He was ‘quite sure’ that most of the 6,700 Romanians and Bulgarians in Duisburg — population 488,000 — were aware of the social welfare they will be entitled to in the New Year. ‘I expect most of them will claim benefits’, he said.
Many are uneducated or unskilled, and will struggle to find work in a city where unemployment is at 16 per cent. Yet they arrive at a rate of 200 every month. The council estimates that from next year it will cost £15 million a year to house and feed them. The city is now appealing to the EU for financial help to cope with the influx.
Mr Link believes that Britain — known for its similarly generous welfare system — will also suffer the ‘consequences of opening the EU to these states’.
Retired architect Hans Halle, 65, and his wife Helga, 63, live in a six-bedroom house opposite the eyesore at 3-5 In Den Peschen. Last month, they learned that their £200,000 home had plummeted in value to £78,000 in a single year, following the arrival of the Romanians and Bulgarians.
The Halles had planned to downsize after their children moved out, but can no longer afford to do so. Grandmother Mrs Halle says: ‘A year ago this was a normal area but it is now a slum. We feel defeated and we feel angry at the EU.’ The Halles feel terrified in their own home and have been spat at, threatened and had their car vandalised.
‘The women here don’t go out at night. I even call my husband to escort me from the car to our front door. It’s not a life any more.’
The tower block is owned by Branco Baresic, the owner of Duisburg’s largest brothel, Sexxx Palace. Mr Baresic, an overweight man with a manicured beard and a black trench coat, arrives at the flats once a month to collect his rent in cash from the ‘head’ of the community.
www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2290480/Romanian-migrants-blamed-rise-crime-German-town-Duisburg.html
