Turkey-Syria earthquake: Arsonists in Germany burn clothes donated to victims

Clothing donations for earthquake victims in Syria and Turkey worth thousands of dollars were set alight in a suspected arson attack in the German city of Recklinghausen on Monday.

'Our dreams of donating these clothes and funds were shattered when two boys came into the supermarket and set it on fire'

- Vijay Raj, supermarket manager

Video footage online showed arsonists breaking into a supermarket where all the clothes had been stored and burning the clothes collected by volunteers. 

Vijay Raj, who runs the Ani supermarket where the incident occurred, told local media that his supermarket had received a lot of clothing donations and money for earthquake victims in Syria and Turkey. 

"Our dreams of donating these clothes and funds were shattered when two young boys of European descent came into the supermarket and set it on fire," said Raj. 

"We also found two Turkish flags that we had hung thrown into the flames and burnt with the donation."

When asked by reporters how the community reacted, Raj said: "We were all very sad. Some of us cried because we spent hours arranging the donations and putting together care packages." 

"But because we are a community, people came together after the fire to salvage what we can and thank god the arsonists didn't reach this back section where we had already packed some packages."  

Raj said he is no longer accepting any material donations and asked people to give him cash instead to pass on to charities on the ground. 

'Temporary visas' for quake victims

Germany is home to 2.9 million Turks, with more than half holding Turkish nationality. 

About 924,000 Syrians also live in Germany after former German Chancellor Angela Merkel opened the borders to refugees in 2015 and 2016. 

Over the weekend, the German Interior Ministry said it would offer the relatives of existing Turkish migrants and Syrian refugees temporary visas to come over to Germany from disaster areas.

"This is emergency aid," German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser told the Bild Newspaper on Saturday. 

"We want to allow Turkish or Syrian families in Germany to bring their close relatives from the disaster area to their homes without bureaucracy."

Germany's Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock also said on Saturday that it had formed a task force to start the initiative.

Baerbock added that the scheme is designed for victims who wish to seek refuge in Germany and stay with close relatives who are German citizens or hold permanent residency.