Spokesman for children’s aid organization: Helpers give food packages to the poor: Romanian gangs exploit this in a bad way

Wolfgang Büscher has been the press spokesman for the Christian children and youth organization “Arche” for many years. In an interview with FOCUS online, he talks about worrying child poverty, problematic problem schools and why he believes the citizen’s allowance is a crime against our children.

FOCUS online: Mr. Büscher, your new book, which you wrote together with the founder of the Arche, Bernd Siggelkow, is called “The Crime Against Our Children.” What exactly do you mean by that?

Wolfgang Büscher: My colleague Bernd Siggelkow and I have already written several books about the poverty and neglect of children in Germany. We see it every day in the Arche: children and young people who are not cared for by anyone, who are left alone by society and politics. The plight of young people in Germany is getting worse and worse. In our book we want to call the injustices by their name, which politicians like to turn a blind eye to.

One of these injustices is the citizen’s allowance…

Büscher: …. Exactly, the citizen’s allowance is a crime against socially weak and disadvantaged families. A single mother with three children who is struggling to survive is treated in Germany in the same way as a single person who simply doesn’t want to work. I know mothers in my home at the Arche who eat little or nothing during the day so that their children get enough food. That cannot be right.

The crime against our children

A major theme in your book is migration. How has the refugee crisis changed your work?

Büscher: In some of the Arks we now have up to 95 percent children with a migrant background. Most of them are refugees. We educators often have to take on the role of father or mother for these children. These are children who cannot be properly supported at home, children from families with refugee experiences. Nobody cares about the integration of these young people. Instead, they are crammed into problem schools.

They demand that these schools be abolished…

Büscher: Yes. In problem schools in Berlin-Hellersdorf, -Marzahn or -Neukölln, children with a migration background are almost alone; they make up 90 percent of the students. Up to 60 percent of them do not speak German. How can successful integration take place in this situation? They are simply cut off from German society. These children then go to mosques with their own preachers.

What does that mean?

Büscher: A 16-year-old refugee recently came to me and said: “Wolfgang, we’re not going to those watered-down mosques with your Muslims.” Where will this lead? I would argue that we should first impose a travel ban in order to take care of those who are already there. We cannot say: “You are all welcome” and then leave these children completely alone.

Especially since children are the future of this country…

Büscher: Correct. Every year around 50,000 students leave school without a qualification. But the Federal President says that in order to combat the shortage of skilled workers, we need 50,000 people from abroad. We already have many people from abroad here. Great children and young people with a lot of potential. Why don’t we train them properly?

You write that you also notice an increased level of aggression among children and adolescents.

Büscher: Yes, massively. It’s because of all the frustration. A young refugee recently told me that the people smugglers promised him that his family would get their own house in Germany. And then he sits for years in facilities like these metal containers where the rooms are separated from each other by bedsheets.

Such disillusioning experiences cause these young people to isolate themselves, turn against our country and our culture, and attract attention through aggressive behavior. I also experience that German parents no longer want to send their children to us at the Arche.

In your book you also report on abuse of social benefits by certain groups in your institutions.

Büscher: That’s another thing. We have set up food distribution centers. We distribute food packages to starving people worth 60 to 70 euros. At some of these distribution centers, large groups of mainly Romanian compatriots suddenly came and sent their wives to the front to collect food. They then threw the cheaper food from the packages into the garbage in front of the Ark.

Do you have the feeling that all these problems are present in the traffic light parties?

Büscher: We talk to politicians all the time. Olaf Scholz has already been to the Arche Potsdam, and I recently spoke to Ricarda Lang. Politicians come to the Arche, listen to our problems, nod their heads and then leave. Hardly any politician comes a second time. I was recently invited to a talk show with Jörg Pilawa. He said that they had asked 23 politicians about this topic, but they all declined.

We feel completely abandoned by politics. You get the impression that children have no value in Germany. And then politicians are surprised that right-wing parties are on the rise. Families feel that their problems are not being seen at all by politicians. I could have told you before the election that many people in the Berlin troubled district of Marzahn/Hellersdorf voted for the AfD. If the democratic parties want to gain more support from their voters again, they must also keep an eye on the little ones. Because children are our most important resource for the future of this country.