The refugees are driven from the lands of their births by violence. The Gaddafi regime is mentioned several times as a source of the unrest, but the terrorist group Boko Haram is also active in the regions where they lived. Through no fault of their own, the refugees are forced to leave their homelands, then arriving in countries that do not want them. They no longer have a sense of home, and the refuge that the government purports to offer is not ideal. Rather, it results in an enforced idleness that wastes the men’s time and prevents them from taking actions such as working that would allow them to solidify their futures.

To offer refuge is to offer sanctuary. But the media in Berlin treats the refugee story as one of inconvenient loafers who want only to take from the government, rather than work. There are people who openly resent the presence of people who were forced onto boats at gunpoint and then managed to find their way to Berlin. Monika and Jörg, friends of Richard, express a typical ignorance when they joke about the refugee women having many diseases. Richard eventually comes to see the aggression with which German and Italy deny refuges to the Africans as a warlike action.