They are just as interested in music and sport as young Swiss people. And yet the unaccompanied minor asylum seekers from the Lilienberg MNA center live in the shadows of the public eye. On Saturday, August 23, a summer party gave the local population the opportunity to get to know the young people. And they made the most of this opportunity.
This is the second party that the girls and boys from the MNA center have organized together with terre des hommes schweiz and the young people from imagine. “This time, we wanted them to be able to incorporate their own wishes into the party,” says Sabin Müller, project manager at terre des hommes schweiz. The organization of the festival presented challenges for everyone involved. New MNAs have been arriving continuously since spring, including many younger ones aged 11 to 13. Communication alone required creative solutions. “Once we spoke to one of the Syrians in German. He then said it to an Eritrean in Arabic, who in turn passed it on to his compatriots in one of their national languages,” says Alain Zoller from imagine. Finally, the MNAs created collages of their wishes. “They wanted something sporty and a stage,” says Sabin Müller.
Colourful program attracts many visitors
That’s why a volleyball tournament took place first. The team of Afghans and Syrians competed in specially organized red T-shirts with a Swiss cross. They later took second place behind the youngsters from Eritrea and Somalia. During the game breaks, the boys tried their hand at the football goal wall.
The sporting part was followed by the musical program. The performances on stage can be enjoyed in a relaxed atmosphere with barbecued food, salads, various cakes and drinks. Two young Syrians led through the evening almost professionally in German. No one would believe that they have only been in Switzerland for eight and ten months respectively. During the evening, there was Eritrean singing and dancing, the reggae band Dixkson from Lucerne created a relaxed atmosphere with Bob Marley covers and the Afrodance group Café au lait from Zurich enchanted the mixed audience. In short, it was an atmospheric, successful festival.
Life with the minimum
Isabelle and Donato Vallini from the region thought so too. They came to the Lilienberg with their two small children. “We only found out this week from an article in the Affoltener Anzeiger that this MNA center even exists,” said Isabelle Vallini. They took part in one of the guided tours of the center led by the residents themselves. “They don’t live in luxury here,” Donato Vallini noted of the sparse rooms and facilities. In view of the widespread assertion that asylum seekers live like maggots in bacon in Switzerland, he reacted indignantly: “You can only say that if you don’t deal with the fate of these people. When you see the young people, who are so friendly and cheerful, it makes you wonder what they have experienced on their way here. It’s good that they can come to rest here.”
The Lilienberg MNA Center
There are currently 78 asylum-seeking young people living at the Lilienberg MNA Center near Affoltern am Albis. This is run by the AOZ on behalf of the canton of Zurich. MNA stands for Mineurs non accompagnés. This means that they have arrived in Switzerland alone, unaccompanied by their parents or adults.
