GERMANY: Asylum applications down (1)
01 January 1991
GERMANY: Asylum applications down
artdoc March=1995
Official government figures show that the new asylum law which
entered into force on 1 July 1993 has led to a dramatic drop in
the number of asylum applications - from 37,000 a month during
the first half of 1993 to 16,000 a month during the second half
of 1993, and 10,000 in the month of October 1994.
Of the 322,599 asylum applications in 1993 only 3.2% were
granted. Between January to October 1994 there were 102,968
applications of which 8.2% were granted of this much lower
figure.
The new law excludes all those asylum-seekers coming via
so-called `safe' third countries from the asylum procedure. As
all the countries neighbouring Germany have been declared `safe'
by law in theory nobody seeking asylum and arriving by land at
the German border or at airports can apply through the procedure.
In order to implement this new legal concept Germany has
concluded readmission agreements with the two main countries of
transit to Germany from the east - Poland and the Czech Republic
- obliging them to back any person who crosses illegally into
Germany via their territories. For those asylum-seekers who
arrive in Germany by plane there is going to be an accelerated
so-called `airport-procedure' during which the asylum applicant
will remain at the airport. The new law also introduced so-called
`safe' countries of origin. Under this provision Ghana, Senegal,
Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Bulgaria, Romania and
Hungary are considered `safe' with the effect that asylum
applicants from these countries can be rejected as `manifestly
unfounded' and subjected to the acceleration procedure.
It has also become more difficult for asylum-seekers whose
application has been rejected but who might nevertheless be in
danger of human rights violations if returned to their countries
to get protection from deportation. The meeting of the Ministers
of the Interior of the Federal States in November could not agree
to stop or delay deportations for Kurds from Turkey,
Kosovo-Albanians, Armenians, conscientious objectors from the
Republic of Yugoslavia, Zaire, Angola or Togo. The only stop on
deportations agreed was for those from Bosnia.
Compromise on citizenship
Under current legislation a child is granted automatic
citizenship if one of its parents is German - citizenship is
based on a German blood-connection not on residency or birth in
the country. This excludes over 6 million resident immigrants.
During the German election campaign the FDP called for dual
nationality to be made available but in `horse trading' after the
election the governing coalition (FDP and Chancellor Kohl's
Christian Democrats) compromised on only giving very limited
citizenship rights to third generation immigrants. Under the
proposal a `quasi' citizenship would become available to children
with at least one parent born in Germany and if both parents have
lived in Germany for at least ten years. Such citizenship would
only be valid up to the age of 18 - at which point the `foreigner
with German child nationality' (to use the official terminology)
would revert to being an ordinary foreigner unless they renounce
their original nationality within a year. The liberal Suddeutsche
Zeitung newspaper commented: `How nice. The child may call itself
German - but legally it is not German. It is quasi-German'.
The German Commissioner for immigrants, Cornelia
Schmalz-Jacobsen, has been joined by Amnesty International,
Pro-Asyl and churches in protesting at the 15 deaths in
(pre-expulsion) detention of deportees since 1990, the conditions
in which deportees are detained and the rising level of enforced
deportations - 40,000 this year up to August.
International Herald Tribune, 15 & 16.11.94; Independent,
15.11.94; Guardian, 28.10.94, 15.11.94; Financial Times, 6.6.94;
see Statewatch vol 4 no 5.
Statewatch, Vol 4 no 6, November-December 1994