In the present article, published in The Guardian in April 2017, the author Ben Mauk analyses the situation
of international asylum in the very private and premodern community of Sumte in Lower Saxony, Germany
during 2015.
In the first place, the author outlines the main characteristics of Sumte. It is a little village in the
municipality of AmtNeuhaus which has about a hundred inhabitants, who have never met modern life and
who are completely alienated from the rest of the world. News from the outside hardly enter and reach the
village and the political masters of its nearby town are the only people responsible for the administration of
Sumte. The inhabitants cannot decide anything about anything.
Next, Ben Mauk details the international asylum situation in Germany in 2015 and what happened in Sumte
when the protection request had been extended to this little private village. Like every member of the
European Union, Germany had to implement the right measures to respect the agreement to international
asylum. As a consequence, every town or city had to host refugees. So did Sumte since it sheltered dozens
of asylum seekers. Moreover, Germany in general and in particular Sumte decided to host and shelter
refugees in order to fulfil their deep constitutional duty of providing anyone with human dignity.
Lastly, the author reflects on an episode which totally changed the attitude of Germans towards asylum
seekers and the policies of international asylum. Although most of the refugees behaved respectfully and
peacefully, the mass sexual assaults that happened in Cologne during New Year’s Eve could not be tolerated.
Therefore, Ben Mauk explains that Germans started considering asylum politics negatively and asked the
government to close the borders. Consequently, in this hostile climate, a great number of refugees,
especially male refugees, left the country.
The author concludes by saying that people from AmtNeuhaus and Sumte, just like any other German,
would agree to host and shelter asylum seekers again, although they would not do so enthusiastically
because of their past experience.