Excerpt:
The dimly-lit mosque in a converted underground car-park in central Hamburg seemed a far cry from its proud name, Al-Nour, Arabic for light: Fans whirred lazily above the faded brown carpets, while a mere slither of sunlight crept in through the main door.
Until May of this year, up to 400, sometimes even 600 refugees would crowd into the small room every night, the mosque's chairman Daniel Abdin told DW. "Just imagine how stuffy it would get when all those people slept here!"
The number of refugees arriving in Germany, which reached an estimated 1.1 million last year and saw German authorities struggling to accommodate them, has dropped significantly this year. This is due, in part, to a deal struck between the European Union and Turkey, which allows for the deportations of migrants who enter Europe illegally.