A signal judgment of the Federal Administrative Court for Christians from Iraq

With regard to the signal judgment of the Federal Administrative Court Leipzig for Christian refugees from Iraq the Society for Threatened Peoples called on Friday for the members of the small religious community of the Mandaeans to be also granted permanent residence permits in Germany.

"We appeal urgently to all administrative courts to close all cases of appeal for refugee status against Assyro-Chaldaean Christians, for both groups are being bloodily persecuted in Iraq on account of their religion", said the human rights organisation. The Federal Administrative Court Leipzig decided in its judgment on Tuesday (1C 15.05 et al.) that Christians from Iraq, who had fled during the rule of Saddam Hussein in the years 2000 and 2001 to Germany, should not be deported and that the cases at the Administrative Court Munich should be reversed. "Mandaeans, just like Assyro-Chaldaeans, are being attacked and murdered by Islamic fundamentalists on the open street, girls and women are being abducted and raped, families are being chased out of the country with threats of death or forced to convert to Islam", reported the GfbV near-east correspondent, Kamla Sido. In Germany nearly 1000 Mandaeans have sought refuge. Some 17,000 of the former roughly 30,000 adherents of this religious community in Iraq have already fled to the neighbouring countries. The Mandaeans trace their religion back to John the Baptist. The GfbV sees no future for them in Iraq and calls on the German government, the neighbouring European countries and also to the governments of Australia and the USA for each to take a certain number of this religious community. In the light of the escalation of violence in Iraq the GfbV calls for a stop to the appeal cases and deportations.