إحراق مركز للاجئين في ألمانيا إثر خلاف حول الإفطار في رمضان

A massive fire at Düsseldorf’s major international trade fair grounds yesterday has been followed by reports that the blaze was set deliberately by migrants who were angry because of Ramadan.

Officially, some 160 migrants were resident at hall 18 of the Messe Düsseldorf conference centre, but it was a facility plagued by racial conflict which had seen violence spark before. Düsseldorf’s Express newspaper reports these conflicts were not between European German staff and their guests, but between the predominantly Arab residents, and a minority of Afghans who sided with the security staff running the facility — who were mainly Iranian.

A refugee camp in Germany was burned down by migrants amid claims they were angry they had not received a wake-up for Ramadan breakfast, it has been reported

نشب عراك بين لاجئين حول طقوس شهر رمضان داخل مركز إيواء بغرب ألمانيا، ما أدى إلى حريق دمر المركز بكامله.

According to the testimony of “several burly Moroccan refugees” which the paper had spoken to even as the hall burnt down, the Iranians employed by the German state to look after other migrants from around the world had “deliberately” not woken the Arabs up in time for their Ramadan breakfast following a long run dispute.

The large fire ripped through the centre - home to 280 refugees - in an exhibition hall in the western German city of Dusseldorf on Tuesday

Just three weeks ago there had been another, much smaller fire at the exhibition centre as a migrant set fire to his mattress in protest against the accommodation.

ويشتبه المحققون باثنين من المقيمين في المركز، وهما مغربيان، ألحا على مواصلة تقديم الوجبات في وقتها وليس وفقا لما يمليه توقيت الإفطار في رمضان.

Under Islamic tradition, during the ninth month of the Islamic calendar the faithful enter a fast between sunrise and sunset in commemoration of Muhammed. In practice this means sleeping-in leaves the Muslim without food until sunset around half-past-nine at night.

The migrants who witnessed the fire being set, some of which even proudly recorded the moment on their mobile phones said the blaze was started “because we just want to get out of here”, away from their Iranian guards.

More than a hundred refugees were evacuated from the centre as the blaze started to take hold

قال ممثل للنيابة الألمانية إن خلافا حول احترام طقوس شهر رمضان أدى إلى حريق الثلاثاء دمر بالكامل مركزا لإيواء اللاجئين في دوسلدورف غرب ألمانيا، وفق ما نقلت شبكة التلفزيون العامة "في دي آر".

وصرح الناطق باسم نيابة دوسلدورف رالف هيرينبروك أنه "في هذه الفترة من رمضان كانت هناك مجموعة تريد الصيام بشكل صارم، بينما رغبت أخرى في الإبقاء على مواعيد وكميات الوجبات بلا تغيير".

German authorities last night said two North African men were suspected of starting the blaze and causing extensive damage 'as part of a dispute over food'. Refugees are pictured resting outside after the fire

Breitbart London reported on the fire as it happened yesterday, with reports of as many as 280 migrants being evacuated from the site, which lies directly next to Düsseldorf’s international airport. Approximately 30 migrants were treated for smoke inhalation, and one of the 70 fire-fighters who turned out to tackle the arson blaze was hospitalised due to heat exhaustion.

There were initially two arrests of migrants that were found at the scene boasting about setting the fire, but this number later rose to six. The men arrested are reported to have been citizens of Morocco, Algeria, Syria and Iraq.

Hall 18 burns yesterday

وأضاف أن "خلافات وجدل مع الصليب الأحمر الألماني حدثت مرات عدة في هذا الشأن".

ويشتبه المحققون خصوصا باثنين من سكان المركز في السادسة والعشرين من العمر وينحدران من شمال أفريقيا، كانا يرغبان في مواصلة تقديم الوجبات في وقتها، وقام أحدهما على ما يبدو بصب سائل قابل للاشتعال على فراشه.

TV footage of the blaze showed plumes of black smoke billowing into the air at the facility on the site of the city's trade fair

While migrants are commonly employed as security, staff, and translators in migrant camps across Germany, a move which helps the authorities with breaking down language barriers with their hundreds of thousands of guests, it brings a whole set of problems. As migrants import sectarian and racial conflict, placing one group of migrants in a position of power and authority over others has led to widespread abuses and violence.

The centre had been on fire since midday but the fire service brought the flames under control during the afternoon

Breitbart London has reported on the problem of migrant guards, who often lack basic qualifications and any sort of oversight by government agencies as they are employed and run by private contractors. One under-addressed expression of this problem is the attacks and discrimination against Christian refugees by Turkish heritage and Arab migrant guards.

Fire department spokesmen described the 5,000-sq-ft exhibition hall, normally used for storage for exhibitors, as a “total loss”

وذكرت صحيفة "بيلد" أن الشابين اللذين ينحدران من المغرب موقوفان، وصرحا في البداية أنهما سوريان.

Severe beatings are the order of the day for many Christian migrants in the care of the German state, who have given uniforms and authority to the exact people they fled the Middle East from in the first place. The hospital report of one Christian who was beaten near to death by “Turkish and Arab descent” guards read: “Skull contusion, monocular hematoma right stump chest trauma, blunt abdominal trauma history.

Since the start of the year, police had been called 89 times to the 65,000 sq ft hall, which was formerly part of the city's congress centre, reports said

“Patient was today beaten by four security people since a massive headache and pain in the abdomen patient was brought to the A&E”.

ودمر الحريق الصالة التي تبلغ مساحتها ستة آلاف متر مربع بالكامل، وأصيب 28 شخصا بحالات اختناق طفيفة بالدخان. ووزع اللاجئون الذين حرموا من هذا المسكن بكل أسف على مراكز أخرى في دوسلدورف.

Another Christian said: “[the guards] accused me of insulting Islam, beat me to the ground, and kicked me in the face”. A German priest witnessed security guards who caught two Iranians reading the bible in their migrant accommodation. He recalled: “The guards ran into the room shouting ‘the Bible is haram!’, pushed them both against the wall, while punching and kicking them”.

The priest lamented of the situation: “My impression is that now anyone who has a particular muscle circumference and speaks Arabic, will be hired”.