Right after I applied for asylum,
I was handed the documents for the “voluntary return” program.
No one was really interested in why I had to flee.
Voluntary return and reintegration?
How voluntarily do people choose these programs?
When our asylum application was denied, it was a shock.
The foreigners authority then pressured us to leave the country as fast as possible.
We didn’t know we could have appealed the decision.
Or that we’d have had a good chance of overturning it.
We were very scared of being deported violently at night,
especially because of our young daughter
So we decided to leave instead.
I tried for years to get a work permit
or a place on a German course – to no avail.
The world got darker every day.
In the end I was totally exhausted and could hardly think straight.
When you’re that isolated,
don’t speak the language and face racial insults
- you just want to leave and agree.
It feels like deportation -
- only you weren’t officially forced to go.
And what happens once you return?
As soon as I arrived here, I knew it was a mistake.
My parents fled this country before I was born.
Now I’m here for the first time and don’t know anyone.
To get me to consent, I was promised help starting my own business.
Before I left, I got some money
- which was quickly gone.
Many of the other promises the return and reintegration program made
were not kept.
I took the reintegration program’s advice and opened a hairdresser’s.
But the city already has enough hairdressers
and the people are very poor.
Often I can’t even make the rent for the shop.
We don't dare leave the house.
The group whose death threats forced us to flee is still out there.
And there are no security authorities to protect us and our children.
Many people regret having submitted to “voluntary” return.
Instead of the promised prospects for a better future,
they are often left destitute in their country of origin.
We have documented their stories.