Transit Homeland
From East to West
Ukraina, Italy 2006/2007
"There is no drinking water, no medical care, and no contact to the outside world. Once a week, charity brings a truckload with 200 liters of drinking water. For 400 people. It is never enough for everybody. On the other days, we drink the cooling water of the heating system belonging to the Border Patrol. I have witnessed many fights because of water. The inductees stand on the other side of the fence and laugh at us. Sometimes they film the fights with their mobile phones."
Samer, Palestine
The Ukraine is steadily becoming a partner of the European Union regarding the securing of the borders. For many refugees, the large eastern European state is more of a transit state on the way west, but for the EU it fulfills a bouncer function and keeps refugees from crossing the border. Whoever is seized behind the border, inside of the EU, is mostly transported right back, handed to the Ukrainian Border Patrol, and detained. In "Pawschino", a detention center funded by the EU and secured by armed forces, 400 to 500 refugees are being detained for months. In return for the cooperation of Ukraina concerning the defense against refugees, the European Union has decided simplified visa regulations for Ukrainian citizens and has announced trade facilitations.
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To many Ukrainian citizens, the impoverished country can neither offer subsistence, nor any prospects for the future. Hundreds of thousends Ukrainians work abroad to secure the survival of their families. In Europe, where the market is booming for low-wage workers from Eastern Europe, they provide hard work for a ridiculous price, mostly without a legal residence permit status and without a work permit: as plantation workers, as household help, in the care for the elderly. Depending on the current demand for workers in the EU states, the Union henceforth aims at a "legal immigration" from states such as Ukraina, Moldova, or Egypt following a rotation principle. A lasting right of residence and social integration are not intended.
Halya worked as a college teacher in Ukraina, today she is working as a nurse for the elderly in a little village in Italy, receiving three Euro per hour.
