Like refugees

Upon the urgent request of my employer and a strong recommendation of the German embassy, my wife and I, like thousands of other people, were turned into refugees last week as we were told we had to leave the country.

Now this was not going to be that easy as, for instance, we did not have passports in hand; they were already with Immigration to receive a final exit visa. So we had to rush through the early morning quiet of the city to the German embassy, where we got two new passports without, however, a single stamp inside.

Two suitcases had to be packed, with the strange feeling one has at, basically, leaving all possessions behind not knowing whether one would see them again. That all done in a rush, we were off to the airport where the chaos was completed by thousands of stranded people who wanted to get out.

We had to go to the Lufthansa office where the staff worked efficiently at issuing tickets for as many people as the plane would hold.

Back in the check-in hall we had to wait anxiously for some five to six hours to be confirmed as really being on a flight to Singapore. Again, under the intense pressure of people lining up in front of the counters, the Lufthansa manager and his staff calmed the people and assured them in a professional way that they would do everything possible to help them.

The people from the German embassy meanwhile were also at the airport and helped people with immigration or simply supplied soft drinks and the occasional beer, which help a lot in the excessive heat of the building.

Last but not least, the Indonesian immigration, whose reputation is not always the best, processed me with my blank passports by just believing my story about them and never asked for anything beyond the official levies.

All in all, it was a terrible experience to be forced to leave one's home country like this but I would like to express my special thanks to the people from Lufthansa, the German embassy and the Indonesian immigration, whose professionalism made things a lot easier.

ROLAND WOEHRLE

Jakarta