In February 2016, refugees protested against their planned deportations with a hunger strike in the deportation prison in Mühldorf am Inn (Bavaria). After the fire in one of the cells, the prison authorities answered with banning visits and mails. The following day, one of the inmates was deported to Afghanistan despite to the injuries caused by the fire. The foreign office (Ausländerbehörde) in Munich was blocked in solidarity with the protest for several hours. After three weeks of hunger strike, Zaki K. was deported as the last of the strikers against his will with Air India from Frankfurt to Kabul. Because of the solidarity action three activists were on trial on the 14th of March 2017. Read here their process declaration (German). The interview with Zaki was conducted before the trial.
Hello Zaki. Last year you were involved in the hungerstrike in the deportation prison in Mühldorf and got deported after a long struggle. This week is the court hearing because of a solidarity action, which took place during your protest. We thought it is a good possibility to speak with you again.
Yes, I have a lot to say, but who will listen to these things? When I was in Germany, I saw the truth. What the police did with me, they cannot deny that, because I have proofs. How the German police, the German lawmakers, how they lie to people, how they cheat the asylum people. Inacceptable things happened in 2016. With a white paper in the pocket they deported me.
What do you mean with white paper? Do you mean they deported you without any legal ground?
Yes, a fake paper. When I was on hungerstrike, they deported me. The time they came, my lawyer was not working, lunchtime. Six guards came, pushed me by force out, took me out. They just showed me a pocket and said: „All your papers came from the court in Nürnberg. Just take your things and when you are in the car, you can read the papers.“ I took my things, went in the police car, we started driving to Frankfurt and I asked again to see the papers from court. They said „Later, at the airport“. At the airport I told them again to give me my papers. They refused again. Later when I was able to open that pocket I saw that there were some papers of my marriage legalisation, but mainly white papers! I was shocked. What? That policeman? That Landratsamt? They are cheating me so bad? They must be ashame of what they did with me. I still have this pocket with me. One day I will write a story about it. About how Germany is talking so much, and cheating me.
The deportation was around 10 months ago. Can you tell us what has happened in the last months and in your first days and weeks back in Afghanistan?
The Landratsamt in Tirschenreuth decided to deport me without any reason. My papers for the marriage were at the Standesamt and two years they told me „tomorrow, tomorrow“. And then in the end, they told me that because I am a Muslim I am not allowed to marry. They requested more and more papers. I gave them all the papers, all the documents. There was one person working there, saying „I will be the person, who is sending you back to Afghanistan.“ Even two years before, he told me „I will send you back.“. In the end they took my passport, called the police and they took me. Before in the court they were saying, „You just want to marry to stay in Europe.“ Hey, about what they were talking? I am having children in Norway! I was twenty years in Europe!
They deported me from Frankfurt to Afghanistan. The German police was working at the airport in Kabul – they sold me to Afghanistan. When I got out of the airport I had nobody to go to, no family. A country full of war. I was going to hell. I wasn‘t able to find somebody. I found a place to stay for a couple of days in Kabul. I was so scared and also ill from the hugerstrike. I had so many problems in my body, with my knee, with my back, allergies.
Soon in Afghanistan I was kidnapped! They asked for money, but I had nothing. It happened even close to a military base, where they have so many cameras. Then there was a big suicide bombing, when they attacked a military base in Kabul. I was injured from that. I was in hospital because of my leg. Then I applied for a visa in Turkey and went there, after five, four months. It was too difficult to live in this place. I love my country, but there is war.
I experienced this three times! When they deported me for the first time from Europe to Afghanistan, I was kidnapped. My father was the vice president of Afghanistan in the past. In 2011 I opened a small shop and again I was kidnapped. I payed 24.000 Dollar to be released. In Afghanistan so many people don‘t have work so they work with so many diffrent groups. They can threaten you to take your money and empty your pockets. This is not a joke, not a story to tell. When I was deported to Afghanistan, the Taliban told me: „You come from Europe, so you have money.“ But I swear, I had nothing. They just pushed me on the street and said, „You work for Germany“. So I told myself that I cannot live in this country anymore, I had to leave again. Three times they did this with me, they came in the night, took me and took everything from me.
And if Germany is sending me back to Afghanistan, I think, they support them. Because they know the situation of our country. European gouvernments pay money to Afghanistan. For this money, they have to take back their citizens. But we need your help, not your money. We don‘t tell you to come to Afghanistan and help us. We don‘t need your police to teach us! You can help us to make streets, to make schools. Help us to fight against those, who are destroying our country. This is not a war because of religion, but it is a war because of petrol, a war of oil, a war of soil. We grew up with the war. It makes up everything of our history. Everywhere terrorist attacks. Christians, Muslims, Jews are killed in the name of Islam.
Now I am in Turkey, I work, I have everything, I live in a beautiful city. In Germany I was not allowed to go to school, they put me at some remote place and I was not allowed to move 20 km outside. I was staying in Tirschenreuth, my lawyer in Munich. That‘s 4,5 hours travelling. How can I reach him? When I got back, there was no bus anymore.
In the middle of December there was a mass deportation to Afghanistan and there are negotiations about a new contract between Afghanistan and Germany so that it will be more easy to deport people. What do you think about that?
Asylum seekers never got any chance. Every month you have to decide, whether you spend your money for a lawyer or for food. And then often, as it was in my case, the lawyer is not working for you. I called him thousand times, and he was not answering. Because he knows that I am an asylum seeker and that he can do that with me.
The court, the Landratsamt, they just didn‘t wanted to listen, what kind of problem people have in Afghanistan. They think they are better than you. How can we believe that Germany has good laws? It‘s true, Germany has good laws, a good economy, but only for themselves. If Germany is sending so many people back, everybody will say about Germany that it is so bad. The other part of Afghanistan, the Taliban, they will enjoy that. They say, „See, this is Europe.“ And young boys get brainwashed, join the war against the NATO and become suicide bombers. Why do they send so many Afghan people back? The young generation will not forget this. I don‘t think it is good if people hate Germany. Why has this terrorist attack happened before Christmas in Berlin? Why? It is the mistakes of the lawmakers!
Germany makes many enemies for themselves. People just want to start a new life. They don‘t think, that they will take social money, when they go to Germany. This is what people in Germany think: „We give them everything from our pockets.“ How you give us something from your pockets? If in 2016 Germany took half a million asylum seekers – in Turkey there were ten millions asylum seekers!
We are human beings. The fingers of my hand are the same size as yours. We can learn from each other something. If you have water, share a little of your water. If you have knowledge, teach people, let them learn. I lived in so many countries. Iran, Turkey, Bulgaria, Greece, Germany, Sweden, Norway and I learned from everywhere something.
Looking back on the hungerstrike in Mühldorf last year – how do you see the protest now?
The authorities in Mühldorf, they didn‘t want to help. The boss of the Muehldorf prison, he was living in Afghanistan two years. Many of them had been in Afghanistan. He told me: „Your country is very good, why you don‘t go back?“ I said: „You have been there only to do your job. You have been in secure military bases, not outside. If you went outside, you went with your soldiers.“ The police of Mühldorf, they are sick people. They have wrong information about asylum people. And in the Bundesamt, there are also working sick people.
In Mühldorf, we were treated you so bad. I saw people in prison who had serious problems with their teeth. They asked for a doctor, but the guards denied to call one. They said, he has to wait untill Monday. They just give you food, nobody wants to eat. If you complain, they say: „you are not coming to a hotel, this is not your father‘s house. Why are you coming here?“ I was thinking about what has happened with the Jews in the past in Germany and thought „Hey, these prison guards are really Nazis.“ I had another picture of Germany before. I thought they respect people. I was ready to give my heart to the people of Germany. I never wanted to committ any crime.
Are you still in contact to other hungerstrikers?
Yes, to Ahmad, who wanted to kill himself. When I was in Mühldorf, so many people wanted to kill themselves, to hang themselves. They didn‘t want to let news come out of Mühldorf. Another person, after 30 years, they wanted to send him back. He is from Serbia. He has children here. 30 years he was here! He cut his arms. One day I woke up, I saw the blood on the ground. I turned the light on and saw that he is bleeding. I asked him later: „Brother, why do you want to die?“ He said, „If they send me back, after 30 years here, it is a new country for me.“ How can you give a person so much pain? Is this a dangerous person for Germany?
This is the voice of freedom. I don‘t want to be scared of any politician, of nobody. This is for all people around the world, Jews, Muslims, all people, who love freedom. Freedom is not just for Afghanistan, or Norway, of Germany. Freedom must be for all. All around the world. Not just for one country. I respect myself, so I respect everybody. But these people, maybe they don‘t respect themselves, because they are cheaters, liars, only talking about freedom. What does freedom mean? Democracy? What is happening in the name of democracy? They are just using this name.
People have a lot of pain, they lost theirs lives. They don‘t want to remember, to see the cities and remember the friends they lost. When I see the schools in Afghanistan, I have to remember the bombings, how my school friend died. So dirty things happen. But they don‘t let us explain our lives. If you want to sell us to a country, sell. If you want to buy a country like this, do it, but 130 years before, the United Kingdom came to Afghanistan. They take everything, we beat them, they went to Pakistan. Who came next? So many others. Then Russia came, then NATO. We, the people, have nothing to do with politics. Me, personally, I don‘t want to listen to the stupid politicians. It is not, that if they offer you money, you can just go back. I want to live free. I want to live with every religion. I am a Jew, I am a Muslim, I am a Christian, I am a Buddhist. I don‘t want anybody to be scared to say what their religion is. The religion is not doing something bad, the people are making something bad, in the name of religion.
How is the situation now of your wife and children in Norway?
Last week my son had birthday and everytime he is telling me: „Father I love you so much, I miss you so much, I don‘t know why you don‘t come. When will you come?“ He is ten years now, when he was six, he told me the same things. The court didn‘t listen to us. How can I trust a court anymore? How can I trust the police anymore? We want to be together, we are a family.
Are you still trying to legalise your marriage?
Yes, but the problem is that my wife is working 30 percent, because she cannot work more. My children are born in Norway. According to the law of human rights, you are not allowed to seperate families. But I know, that we don‘t get our rights because we are Muslims. And the European people don‘t like Muslims, they hate them. It‘s not like before, a free Europe. This is the new Europe. They put in the minds of the young people: „Muslims are bad.“
What is your hope for the future?
If I look at the situation, I have zero hope for the future. Europe is talking nice about human rights. Everytime they are talking about human rights in other countries, but they themselves are the bosses of cheaters. You can make a hungerstrike thousand times and you will become sick. Why is there is a prison for asylum people? Why are they in the prison? Because they ran from war!
I read about history and the Nazi times in Germany.. You understand, how this was possible.
Our situation in Germany comes out what has happened in the past. It did not end in German society. They don‘t want to burn us in the oven, but they want to burn us in another way.
In the end, what you want to tell the German authorities?
I want to tell the German lawmakers, that with this kind of deportations you cannot solve the problem. They will hate Germany. If you don‘t listen to people, they explode at some point.
It is coming back to you, if Millions of people hate you. Why they don‘t send the doctors back to Afhanistan? Why not the ingenieurs? They accept them, but they send the normal people back. They need doctors and ingeniurs, they don‘t need us.
I love Germany, not because of the money or the social benefits. I have a lot of respect, even if they push me in the danger, I still want to thank the good people there and for the time I spend there.
