Germany: Asylum and immigration (5)
01 January 1991
Germany: Asylum and immigration
artdoc November=1995
Asylum prisons
Three suicides in detention centres
Since the abolition of the constitutional right to asylum in
1993, at least 20 asylum-seekers have committed suicide in
German prisons. Most recently:
* Amar Tair, Algerian, 25, committed suicide in a prison in
Wittlich, Rheinland-Pfalz, on 20 January, having spent nine
months in detention pending deportation.
* Abiyou Tilaye, Ethiopian, 37, committed suicide in a
prison in Wurzburg after spending more than six months in
detention awaiting deportation alongside his 41-year-old wife.
* El Kadaoui, Moroccan, 22, died in hospital after a
suicide attempt in Wiesbaden prison. Four days prior to his
death, Kadaoui, accused of drugs dealing, had avoided
deportation to Ethiopia when an airline pilot refused to take
him.
* Another man at the same detention centre in Wiesbaden
survived with severe injuries after having set fire to his
cell (Junge Welt 20.1.95, 28.2.95, Frankfurter Rundschau
26.2.94, Suddeutsche Zeitung 11, 12.3.95).
Detained Algerians interviewed by Algerian officials
The case of Amar Tair (see above) has raised fundamental
questions about German-Algerian intelligence links. Two days
before Tair committed suicide, he and 40 other detained
Algerians were interviewed by representatives of the Algerian
general consulate in a nearby refugee camp. Tair had been
informed that he would be given a passport in order to
facilitate his deportation to Algeria.
According to the Coordination Group Asylum Rheinland-
Pfalz, which has called for a public inquiry into cooperation
between German and Algerian officials, the state of Rheinland-
Pfalz is not alone in forcing Algerian refugees in detention
to be identified by members of Algerian consulates and
embassies. The states of Niedersachsen and Berlin have also
been known to carry out such a practice. And refugees who
have refused to accompany German police to the consulates for
identity checks have been beaten up (Junge Welt 20.1.95).
More hunger strikes
Officials in Aschaffenburg have refused to negotiate with a group
of 13 Kurdish refugees from Iraq who went on hunger strike to
demand recognition as political refugees (Frankfurter Rundschau
30.1.95).
Anti-asylum prison protesters risk prosecution
A demonstration on 12 December, human rights day, outside an
asylum prison in Worms has drawn an angry response from the
public prosecutor in Bonn. He is considering whether to
prosecute the organisers, and the 700 people who either attended
the demonstration or signed a petition, with inciting public
disorder (Press release of the "Aktionskreis Ziviler Ungehorsam
fur Asylrecht", c/o Martin Singe, Lennestr. l45, 53113 Bonn).
Unemployment benefit entitlement tightened
The German labour minister, Norbert Bluem, has proposed that a
data network be established with neighbouring countries in order
to crack down on people who draw unemployment benefit while
working abroad. The minister also called on regional states to
exclude any company caught employing illegal workers from
tendering for public contracts (Guardian 13.2.95).
Policing of German-Polish border
The Polish Council in Berlin says that each month it receives an
average of two complaints about police mistreatment at the border
from Polish citizens. In December, a 40-year-old Polish doctor
was beaten up at Guben, on the border, after German police forced
him to leave his car (Berliner Zeitung 20.1.95).
Dual citizenship bill shelved
Insufficient parliamentary support means that the Green party's
attempt to introduce a bill on dual citizenship has been shelved.
The bill would have granted dual citizenship to children born of
settled foreigners in Germany (The Week in Germany 17.2.95).
IRR European Race Audit, no 13, April 1995. Contact: Liz Fekete,
Institute of Race Relations, 2-6 Leeke Street, London WC1X 9HS.