Five years ago, the German Chancellor Angela Merkel made a promise as a record number of 800.000 refugees came to Germany – mainly from Syria and neighboring countries. Chancellor Merkel admitted that the reason for this was a significant reduction in aid for Syrians in their home region, and made a humanitarian promise known as “Wir schaffen das!” (“We can manage this / We can do it”): It should never happen again that aid organisations can hardly ensure the survival of Syrians on the spot. What has become of this promise five years later? And where does German humanitarian aid stand on World Humanitarian Day?
Deutsche Welle (DW) has interviewed CHA Director Ralf Südhoff on these questions even twice on 31 August 2020 (see embedded playlist):
Prior to this – on World Humanitarian Day – CHA Director Ralf Südhoff gave another two radio interviews on the German government’s humanitarian commitment since 2015. We invite you to listen to the interview recordings of the two radio broadcasts, hr-info and WDR5, uploaded on 19 August 2020. Please note that the interviews are in the German language.