For the past seven years, they’ve crisscrossed Germany, climbing mountains, following babbling streams and trekking through leafy forests.
It was the hiking club’s most recent outing in the eastern state of Saxony, however, that thrust them into uncharted territory. As members of the group, many of them Syrians living in Germany, made their way through the area’s spectacular scenery, a call was made to police to report a group of migrants, amid suspicions that they had been smuggled across the nearby Czech border.
“It was a bit strange,” said Ayham Tahan, one of the organisers of the hike. “It’s strange that people are calling the police on us when we’re doing the most typically German thing you can do, which is going hiking in the forest.”
The club’s roots go back to 2016, when a group of volunteers, many of them originally from Syria, began organising regular activities that often revolved around hiking.
“This is something we used to do in Syria, to discover the Syrian countryside,” said Tahan, who has been living in Germany for the past nine years. “And then when we came to Germany, we had the same kind of, ‘Why don’t we do it here too?’”
The initiative proved a hit, offering participants the chance to explore Germany while also meeting new people. Soon the group became a registered club, organising days-long hiking excursions for newcomers and Germans alike.
In early November, the group visited the rugged peaks of Saxon Switzerland for the second time. About 55 people had signed up for the four-day trip to explore the rock formations that have long been a tourist draw in eastern Germany.
Their first day was spent up in the mountains. After passing through a small village, they headed back to the hostel where they were staying, only to find their route blocked by a police car.
“I guess someone had called the police saying, ‘Oh we saw a lot of people walking, they look like refugees or migrants,’” said Tahan. “Most of us were Syrian, we were speaking in Arabic, so they heard a language they didn’t recognise and they called police.”
We are a registered hiking club in Germany, mostly Syrians from all over Germany.
— Riham Alkousaa (@RihamKousa) November 9, 2023
We went on a hike in Saxony Switzerland today and came back to our hostel to find police waiting for us.
Someone called police that a group of foreigners was seen and reported as illegal refugees! pic.twitter.com/0K4v9ju6Hd
The police told him that they had a few questions and agreed to meet the group at their hostel rather than question them along the hiking path. “They were just doing their job,” Tahan said. “They were very nice.”
He explained to officers where they had been hiking and clarified that all of the members were in the country legally and that most of them were German citizens. He also explained that the group intended to spend the next few days in the area. “And they just said, ‘We wish you a pleasant time’ and then they left.”
Border police in the area did not reply to a request for comment from the Guardian.
News that someone had called the police divided the group. “A lot of our participants were really angry. Some people were really offended, saying ‘this is racist’,” he said. “And some said this is very typical German behaviour. Like they saw a lot of people and they weren’t comfortable with the language spoken, so they called the police.”
After one member’s tweet about the incident went viral, media requests came pouring in, further polarising the group between those who felt they should speak out and others, such as Tahan, who argued that they needed to hold off.
“For us the priority was just to finish the hike and activity,” said Tahan. “I was worried that maybe some of the locals, they would hear about it and they know where we are staying.”
The group’s experience appears to not have been an isolated incident; one organisation that provides support to asylum seekers in Saxony said it had also been questioned by police during a hike that included people with a refugee background.
Residents of a small town in the border area had called the police after spotting the group, Christina Riebesecker of AG Asylum Seekers said in an email. “They didn’t notice the hiking boots, hiking rucksacks, mushroom basket, cameras, binoculars, the cheerful hiking mood.”
The situation was resolved quickly, but she described it as “frightening” to see how media coverage and political debates around migration were affecting people. “They see people of a certain appearance and no matter how these people behave, they are seen as illegals.”
The incident comes as attitudes to migration appear to be hardening among some in Germany. This month the anti-immigrant, anti-Muslim Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) racked up a mayoral victory in Saxony – days after intelligence officials classified the AfD in Saxony as “firmly rightwing extremist” – adding to its handful of wins in former communist east German states.
The party has also been riding high in national polls, buoyed up by discontent over the economy, migration and the rising cost of living.
In response, the governing left-leaning coalition has sought to crack down on irregular migration, putting in place temporary checks along the eastern borders with Poland and the Czech Republic.
Weeks after the incident, Tahan firmly insisted that it had done little to put anyone in the group off hiking. Instead, plans were in the works for a new slate of outings for the coming year, he said.
“The problem is with the person that called … but you know, in every society, every community, there are such people.” he added. “But it’s also good to highlight this so maybe, hopefully, in the future it doesn’t happen.”
