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Poverty in Berlin: Day laborers living under the elevated railway


Tents, shopping carts, chairs, mattresses and rubbish. The dividing strip under the elevated section of Underground Hochtrasse on Skalitzer Strasse looks like a homeless camp. But it is the makeshift housing of dozens of day laborers.

During the day, they usually toil on construction sites, and whatever the weather, they spend the night in the temporary accommodation. The miserable wages are not enough for a permanent home. An extremely disturbing picture - in the heart of Berlin.

The residents also include Ali (50) and Stevan (60). The two have been commuting between Bulgaria and Germany for ten years, and have lived on the dividing strip for about two months.

While Ali is making bread at a self-made table, he tells in broken German: “We work as painters and spatulas on construction sites. The jobs are on a daily basis, sometimes we get work, sometimes not. "


They were picked up on Tuesday at 6 a.m. and taken to a construction site on Frankfurter Allee. The clients are mostly Turkish or Arab companies. “There are eleven euros per hour, which is unfortunately not enough for a room,” says Ali.

The Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg district office is familiar with the camp: "In our district, as in the entire inner city, camps are constantly being set up in public spaces," says a spokeswoman when asked by B.Z. Berlin. The areas would be cleaned regularly and the people living there would be informed about other accommodation options by social workers.

The customs office also knows the problem. A spokeswoman: "If we determine during our controls that, for example, no residence is given, we of course pass this on to the responsible authorities."

Source: B-Z Berlin
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