Скачать или смотреть UKRAINE: ETHNIC GERMANS LIVING IN CONTAINERS

(30 Jan 1996) Russian/Nat

Around three thousand ethnic Germans who arrived in Ukraine in search of a better life have ended up living in containers.

The group from Kazakhstan has been stranded on the Ukrainian steppes for the past four years waiting for the German government to fund new homes for them.

They now say they are fed up and want to leave for Germany.

This bleak settlement of rusting containers 30 kilometers outside Odessa has been home to 45 families since 1992.

The group of ethnic Germans came to Ukraine from Kazakhstan with promises of a new home and a new life.

The containers were meant to be their temporary housing while the Ukrainian government built them houses using German money.

But the houses stand half-built and the Germans have had enough -- now they want to go home.

Germans have been living in Russia since the mid-eighteenth century.

They prospered until 1941 when Josef Stalin exiled them to Kazakhstan after the Nazis invaded Russia.

When the U-S-S-R fell apart, many applied to leave for Germany but with over a (m) million applying, a backlog quickly developed.

Some ethnic Germans therefore greeted the offer of a new settlement in Ukraine with enthusiasm. That has long since waned.

These families live, work and even pray inside the containers sent from Germany.

Without Ukrainian citizenship finding a job is difficult.

And at a time of economic crisis the money from the German government has disappeared.

The Ukrainians say that it was swallowed by spiralling inflation.

To make ends meet, the women have set up a sewing shop.

They don't want to leave but see no future in Ukraine.

SOUNDBITE: (Russian)
"If we had proper jobs and a better standard of living, of course we would stay. But there's no future here."
SUPER CAPTION: Nella Shatokhina, ethnic German

With no future in Ukraine, many believe there is only one solution to their plight -- to return to Germany.

SOUNDBITE: (Russian)
"The only solution is to allow all the German refugees who are living in these containers into Germany without going through any of the cumbersome red tape. Many have already been waiting 3 years."
SUPER CAPTION: Genrikh Groszt, director Ukraine German
Community

There are some 40-thousand ethnic Germans left in Ukraine.

Kiev's Lutheran Church has become a spiritual focus for many.

The outgoing German Ambassador to Ukraine has said that all ethnic Germans are welcome in the country.

SOUNDBITE: (Russian)
"The policy of the German government is to support all those who want to live in their second homeland, the Ukraine. If someone wants to go to their other homeland, Germany, we say welcome."
SUPER CAPTION: Dr. Alexander Arno, German Ambassador to Ukraine

With the Ambassador's message, Ukraine's ethnic Germans are pinning their faith on the German government keeping its word.

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