German-speaking refugee children:<br>Victims of the German election campaign?

"Secretly, in closed session German ministers of the interior deport political refugees week by week, mostly members of ethnic and religious minorities from areas of war, genocide or expulsion with their children in mostly desperate situations. Children or refugees born in Germany, who have been living in our country for one or two decades, must eke out a miserable existence without any knowledge of the local languages in destroyed villages without any medical care and without any job perspectives. This will affect about 100,000 refugees, of whom at least 30,000 are children. A country with ever less children, in which politicians argue about ways of raising the birth-rate, is deporting children and young people who have for years attended primary and secondary education or universities. In this way German ministers of the interior are disregarding the work done by German social workers, teachers, professors, ministers of religion and parishes, experts for human and civil rights for the training of these young people.

The background to these policies is not least the battle for winning votes using prejudice against foreigners and refugees in the run-up to the coming general election. For this reason it would certainly make sense to take up more vigorously in schools and the media the issue of asylum and expulsion of the 14.5 million Germans from the east after 1945, which for decades was a subject of taboo. Nearly every second German has today a parent or grandparent whose own parents were refugees, deportees or immigrants or who still belong to these groups. Making people aware of this fact would strengthen the solidarity with political refugees and take from the German ministers of the interior the "joy” in conducting these new expulsions.

Representative of many is the fate of the minority family S. from Kosovo, which fled more than ten years ago to Emsland in northern Germany and has been living there since. Their village was totally destroyed and all the inhabitants driven out. Both parents work today for a low wage (EUR 4.80) in a jam factory, the father only part-time following an accident at work. All eight children go to secondary or trade schools, while the youngest is due to start primary school in August. One of the sons became lightweight boxing champion in Lower Saxony, but was not allowed to take part in German championships because he has only a temporary permit of residence. The family is well integrated and would like nothing more than to secure their future in Germany. But they recently received the threat that they would be deported.”

If you have questions please approach Tilman Zülch politik@gfbv.de