"Arise, and take the young child and his mother, and flee into Egypt, and be thou there until I bring thee word" (Matthew 2:13).

The Society for Threatened Peoples (STP) calls on the 52 million Christians in Germany to do more to ensure that long-term refugees have the right to remain here. "Jesus Christ was a refugee child, too. The Holy Family had to flee from Herod with the infant Jesus to the land of the Pharaohs," pointed out Tilman Zülch, president of STP International, in his Christmas appeal. "Christian charity bids us to give shelter to the refugee children who grew up here – some of whom were even born here – and their families, and ensure that they have a safe future."

"We have to ensure that the 24,000 refugee children who were born or grew up here are not forced to leave the country that has become their home. We have to release them from the constant fear that they could be deported at any moment," said the human rights activist. "Such a fate leaves deep scars, as many Germans know from their own experience. Half of all Germans were either refugees, displaced persons or repatriates themselves, or have at least one parent or grandparent who was. Our politicians, including Chancellor Angela Merkel, President Christian Wulff and Interior Minister Thomas De Maiziere, complain that Germany is "a land without children." They should revise their perspective and grant refugee children the right to stay! Each one of us should commit to bringing about this change."

These children would be particularly hard hit by deportation, because having been born or grown up here, German is their native language and the countries their parents came from are foreign to them, says the human rights activist. Germany has invested a lot in their integration. Teachers, social workers, representatives of churches and communities, refugee councils, human rights activists and many other citizens have dedicated their efforts to helping these children and youths.

Most of the long-term refugees in Germany belong to ethnic and religious minorities. They are Roma, Ashkali and Egyptians from Kosovo, Kurds, Bahá'í, Yazidi, Assyrian-Chaldean-Aramaean and Armenian Christians, Alevis and Mandaeans from the Middle East, Chechens from the Russian Federation, or Afghans who have fled from the Taliban. In their countries of origin they are threatened with discrimination, repression or persecution.

For further information please contact Tilman Zülch: 0049 - 551 - 4990624

Translated by Elizabeth Crawford