Germany | University wants refugee teachers back in classroom

Claudia Hubatsch (right), teaches German to a class of people who were teachers in Syria and are now part of a program to enable them to teach in Germany at the University of Potsdam

A German university has launched a program aimed at enabling teachers who fled Syria and other countries to return to the classroom in their new home.
The University of Potsdam, just outside Berlin, this week started intensive German courses for 25 Syrians — the first part of an 11-month course that aims to familiarize them with the language and the country’s education system.
Project initiator Mirjam Vock said yesterday it remains to be seen what jobs the students may get after their course. But she said that they could have “an important function as go-betweens, as bridge-builders between parents, children and German teachers.”
The project starts as Germany increasingly focuses on integrating last year’s many new arrivals into society and the workforce.
Meanwhile, defense ministers from Croatia and Albania say the two countries will work together to prevent possible opening of a new migrant corridor through their territories after Balkan nations closed their borders.
Croatia’s Defense Minister Josip Buljevic and Albania’s Mimi Kodheli agreed to exchange information and jointly act in case migrants try to reach EU member Croatia over the Adriatic Sea from Albania.
The state HINA news agency quoted Buljevic as saying: “We can do a lot to prevent the migrant wave.”
Rights group Amnesty International said the announced religious leaders visit to the Greek island of Lesbos was a “golden opportunity to expose the disturbing plight of thousands of refugees and migrants arbitrarily detained there since the ill-begotten EU-Turkey deal came into force on 20 March.”
Gauri van Gulik, deputy director for Europe at Amnesty International, called on the pope to “speak out about the violations, fear and uncertainty suffered by thousands of refugees and migrants trapped in limbo on Lesbos and elsewhere in Greece.”
Pope Francis will be accompanied by Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I, the spiritual leader of Orthodox Christians, and Athens Archbishop Ieronymos, the head of the Church of Greece. AP