Refugee shelters can be intimidating places for women, who are often in the minority in such facilities. Single women are especially vulnerable to physical and sexual violence. For many of them, it's not their first experience of such crimes. Kushtime came from Albania to Germany for the sake of her children. She wanted them to have a better childhood than hers and grow up in safety.
But at the emergency accommodation in Cologne, western Germany, she's worried about her 16-year-old daughter and warns her not to spend too much time alone in the corridors. "I tell her she mustn't look at any of the men. She's already so grown up that they stare at her, call things and whistle," she says. Kushtime, not her real name, has herself already been hassled by men at the accommodation.
A man followed her into her room and only left when she shouted out. She didn't contact the police about what happened. "I'm ashamed," she says. At 35, she's a single mother, with a sick son to look after as well as many other worries. Many female refugees and migrants share these feelings of vulnerability, according to outreach clinics and women's organisations. There's little privacy in the overcrowded refugee shelters and the atmosphere is often charged. Men are often in the majority: Women make up only a third of asylum applications.
"The big, overcrowded shelters are a particularly dangerous place for women who've already experienced violence," says Denise Klein from the Cologne women's outreach centre, agisra, which supports women such as Kushtime. There are no concrete figures on violence in refugee shelters, says Heike Rabe, a legal expert at the German Institute for Human Rights. "But we're getting more and more indications that women experience quite a lot of violence in refugee accommodation," she adds.
That's not unexpected, since studies have shown that one in four German women have experienced physical or sexual violence. "Why should it be any different in the more pressurised environment of the shelters?" says Rabe. The atmosphere of stress, social isolation and tension are a breeding ground for violence, she continues. The lack of a clear code of conduct also encourages violence, she says: Germany does have a well-functioning legal system which protects women - it's just not well applied in refugee shelters.
"As a German woman I would have quite different options if I found myself in such a situation: I can just leave," says Rabe. However, a refugee can't leave the shelter without permission to find accommodation in another city. "These rules further limit the ways refugee women can defend themselves," she says. "Pretty much all the women who come to us say the men stare at them, whistle and make unwelcome comments," says Klein. There have also been reports of attempted rapes and other sexual assaults.
But, in the case of severely traumatised women, it's not just actual advances or attacks that can trouble them. "Just the sound of noise and male voices from the next room can be problematic for them," says Klein. The noise made by the many young men in her refugee shelter was upsetting for Joy from Nigeria. "They argue, shout, fight. You just want to get away from it," says the 27-year-old as she rocks her baby on her lap. And when she tells her story it's clear why.
Joy, not her real name, was brought to Italy by people smugglers who promised she could find work as a dressmaker. Instead she was forced to work as a prostitute for four years until she managed to escape to Germany. She suspected then that she might be pregnant by her boyfriend and wanted to keep the child this time - she had previously been forced into five abortions by her kidnappers.
She only really feels safe now, in her own flat. Before that she spent a year - first pregnant and then with a small baby - in five different shelters. "There are so many men and they all stare at your breasts, you can't avoid them," says Joy. "It's not a great place for a mother and child." Support groups for female migrants have long been demanding more options to meet the needs of traumatised women, with some success.
The state of Rhineland-Palatinate recently increased its capacity to help the particularly vulnerable. Other states have indicated they want to do the same. Big players such as the Red Cross have also emphasised the efforts they make, despite the ever increasing numbers of migrants arriving in Germany. "We organise separate accommodation for them when it's possible," says a spokesman. But they only recently educated employees about the problem with a leaflet.
"Refugee women live relatively isolated lives in the shelters and hardly know anything about their rights when it comes to violence," the leaflet says. It recommends more information for them, more contact points and more education for the people in charge of the shelters.