Low number of applicants for asylum mirrors cruelty of German asylum policies

The low number of asylum applicants in the past year makes clear in the opinion of the Society for Threatened Peoples (GfbV) the cruelty of German asylum policies. "In the light of the terrible fates which the refugees and their families who have been turned away have suffered, the recognition level of only 0.9 percent or 411 persons in the year 2005 is deeply shameful”, said the GfbV General Secretary Tilman Zülch on Tuesday. "The mercilessness of the German authorities and courts reminds one of the background of hundreds of thousands driven out of the country by the Nazis and the 14.5 million Germans who themselves became refugees and the further five million from the GDR or the Soviet Occupied Zone of Germany, of the cold-bloodedness of the officials and the courts of the Third Reich or the practice of the eastern countries which drove people out after 1945.” At the time of the Nazis many refugees from Germany had to go through an odyssey before they could at last find a country which would take them. Other German emigrants, like Stefan Zweig, Walter Benjamin and Kurt Tuchosky, chose to commit suicide.

"It was precisely these experiences which caused Article 16 to be included in the Constitutional Law, the article which states that persons who are politically persecuted should be granted asylum”, warned Zülch. But clearly many German politicians, officials and lawyers have veered away from this guideline. The number of applicants for asylum was for the year 2005 according to the Federal Ministry of the Interior with 28,914 applications the lowest for 22 years.

The judgements of the German administrative tribunals are often heartless and merciless. A young man from Chechnya was for example also turned down, said the General Secretary. He had been held by Russian soldiers in a hole in the ground for six weeks. There was water up to his knees and he had to undergo cruel torture. He was constantly tied to a chair, sexually assaulted and mishandled with electric shocks until he lost consciousness. In order to buy his freedom his family had to sell up all their belongings.

A young Chechnyan woman also, who turned to the Gfbv for help, was to be returned to Russia after her application for asylum had been turned down. She was then arrested herself and constantly raped for 24 hours.while in Russian custody. The severely traumatised young woman tried to commit suicide after the police had rung at her door at 5 o’clock in the morning in order to send her back.

Even the threat of a death sentence in the country of origin is not enough to protect an applicant for asylum. So an Iranian couple with their two small children, who had been born in Germany, were to be sent back although they had converted to Christianity. For this reason the couple - both computer experts – were threatened with the death penalty. Although in the small village, in which the young family is well integrated, 300 signatures have been collected against the deportation, the authorities stick to the decision.

"We demand from the judges and the administration that they at last put into practice the constitutional demand of Article 16 of the Constitutional Law and behave in the spirit of humanity”, said Zülch.