Martin Walser and Prof. Ernst Tugendhat call for permanent residence permits for refugees who have been in the country for many years

The author Martin Walser and the German Jewish philosopher Prof. Ernst Tugendhat as the patrons of the Society for Threatened Peoples (GfbV) call for refugees who have been in the country for many years to be finally granted permanent residence permits and to facilitate naturalization. The "fatal German deportation policies show that nothing has been learned from the horrors of the past" says the open letter from Martin Walser and the GfbV General Secretary, Tilman Zülch, from the human rights organisation to the ministers of the interior and the senators. They recall in their letter that "deportations" of German Jews preceded the holocaust in 1933 already and that later 14 million Germans became victims of deportation, something which has often been held taboo until the present day. "Deporting people who have been living among us for many years is a grave injustice and dreadfully cruel. If we no longer have respect for other people we lose our own self-respect", added Prof. Ernst Tugendhat.

The GfbV also accuses the ministers of the interior of turning the deportation of well integrated people who have had for many years temporary residence permits and their children, who have grown up in Germany and who speak German, into "deportations into nothing". For this is what these "germanified" people have found in the former homelands of their parents. They come from countries which after civil wars, genocide, flight or deportation for many members of minorities cannot any longer be their homelands.

The children of these refugees, who speak German as their mother tongue with a Lower Saxon, Bavarian or other regional accent, have become de facto ethnically and culturally Germans and have no links of any kind with the homelands of their parents. When politicians complain that too few children are being born in Germany it is incomprehensible that week by week, month by month well integrated German-speaking children are being deported and being made unhappy by the deportation from their German homeland.

With reference to the forthcoming conference of the ministers of the interior this Thursday in Nuremberg the GfbV issued a warning concerning the 200,000 refugees with temporary residence permits: Why should those people be excluded from permission to stay permanently who have no jobs in the light of the fact that the right to work and for their children to continue their education was withheld from them as a rule for more than a decade? In order to lend more weight to their demands the human rights organisation sent their letter to the President of the German Parliament, the Federal Minister for Family and the Federal Minister for Work and Social Affairs, the Innenausschuss (Parliamentary Committee) and all members of Parliament, the prime ministers of the provinces and the mayors of the city states, the churches, refugee committees and human rights organisations.

The text of the letter is printed below:

From: Martin Walser and Prof. Ernst Tugendhat for the Advisory Council of the Society for Threatened Peoples, Tilman Zülch, General Secretary of the Society for Threatened Peoples

Open letter to the ministers of the interior and the senators

Permanent residence for refugees who have lived for many years with temporary permits!

Dear ministers and senators,

"Blind on no eye" is the motto of the international human rights organisation the Society for Threatened Peoples (GfbV). We dedicate our work to threatened religious and ethnic minorities, and so also to the people who have been living in Germany for many years under the constant threat of deportation. We beg of you not to close your eyes to their fate!

Our patron, the internationally renowned Jewish philosopher, Ernst Tugendhat, born in Brünn, Moravia, thrown out of the country by a German government, added the following to the letter: "It is sad enough that the right to asylum in Europe has today been reduced to practically nothing. But deporting people who have been living among us for many years is a grave injustice and dreadfully cruel. If we no longer have respect for other people we lose our own self-respect."

Germany is in many respects a model for other countries, also as regards the living together of people of different origins. And our country has for a long time taken in people suffering from persecution. All the more reason for not closing our eyes to the fate of a group of 200,000 people who have been living amongst us for many years, where they have found a new homeland and who have nevertheless been denied any right to a homeland. They are on the waiting-list for deportation week by week, month by month. In most cases they have been refused work-permits and on leaving school they cannot begin any training.

Tens of thousands of their children speak German as their mother-tongue with a Lower Saxon or Bavarian accent, they have become de facto ethnically and culturally Germans. Most of these children have no links of any kind with the homelands of their parents, who are themselves firmly anchored here.

Teachers, social workers, ministers of religion, Christian parishes, refugee committees, human rights workers and also sports clubs and neighbours have achieved an enormous amount to give them in another way the integration denied them by the authorities.

One example is the fate of the Christian-Assyrian family from Tur Abdin. As Christians their position in their home in the south-east of Turkey was hopeless. They fled to Germany. This year they were deported. All three sons were successful at our schools and universities. The father had a job.. The 15-year old daughter was led out of her class at school in Kassel in handcuffs. Deportation was carried out by force.

We say expressly that nearly all these deportations become deportations into nothing. That is what these "germanified" people find in the former homelands of their parents. They come from countries which after civil wars, genocide, flight or deportation for many members of minorities cannot any longer be their homelands.

If one then speaks of forcible deportation for many of these deportations the ministers of the interior feel themselves provoked because we are reminded of the horrors of recent German history. Quite right too, because such "deportations" of Jewish people started already in 1933 before the holocaust.

These fatal German policies of deportation show that nothing has been learned from the horrors of the past, not even from the deportations suffered by 14 million Germans from the former eastern Germany, a subject which has often been held taboo. One should however bear in mind that nearly every second German today has a parent or grandparent who was one of these people deported, from whom the homeland was taken away.

All politicians are now complaining that too few children are being born in Germany. Why then do they deport week by week, month by month well integrated children? Why are they making children and young people, who have become German, unhappy and driving them from their German homeland?

We beg of you to give these 200,000 people, who have been living for many years in Germany and who need only German naturalization, at long last the right of permanent residence and make it possible for them to receive German citizenship. Germany needs these families and must not continue doing an injustice to its children.

However a decision to exclude those refugees who have no jobs from a permanent right of residence does not change the injustice, but only increases the suffering of this group of people.

Yours Truly,

Tilman Zülch MartinWalser

General Secretary Patron