Spare rooms are no longer vacant and home offices have become bedrooms. Meet the Germans opening their doors to refugees arriving in Europe.
Many ordinary Germans are opening their doors to asylum-seekers in a year which has seen large numbers entering their country.
Wael and Ibrahim sleep in their hosts’ home offices, while Homam and Samira are sharing an artist’s home studio. Mohamad has his own room, and Mecid’s large family has been given an entire house to call their own.
For hundreds of thousands of new arrivals to Germany, home is currently a mass shelter – a temporary solution while they wait for their application results to come through. But a lucky few are kick-starting the integration effort, living side-by-side with Germans in their homes.
Meet a few of the many German hosts helping them land on their feet.
Speaking just a few words of English, Samira and her teenage son Homam rely on a lot of hand waving to communicate with their German host family.
But through the universal language of eye contact and smiles, the two Syrians have forged deep friendships with German hosts Andrea and Alex, who took them into their Berlin apartment.
“It was a huge surprise that these people would invite us to stay in their home,” says Samira, 45, speaking through a translator. “But there was a moment when we arrived and Andrea picked up my bag and took it inside for me. I could feel her humanity. I felt she was a kind person.”
