Germany is often cited as a role model for
democracy, freedom and the protection of minorities. Yet, what often goes
largely unnoticed in the Middle East is the failure of putting laws into
practice. A most dramatic illustration is asylum law. Even though the images of
overcrowded boats at the coastline of Lampedusa are still burned on people’s
retinas, the most appalling cases in Germany have remained behind the scenes.
In
2010 approximately 50.000 refugees applied for German asylum making Germany the
second largest immigration country in the European Union. Its management of
asylum flows therefore sets a benchmark for other EU state’s immigration
policies. However, Germany’s struggles to
fully live up to Human Rights conventions (EHRC) in terms of managing immigration
flows.
With
Serbia’s EU candidacy in 2009 and the dampening of visa regulations, an influx
of Serbian refugees to EU-27 states took place. Roma originating from Serbia are
the largest group of applicants in Germany that are denied asylum. European
boarder control shows rigidity by rejecting 98 percent of applicants. Here, Germany
aligns herself with the public vindication that the refugees are fleeing from
poverty and therefore are not eligible for asylum. They base their
argumentation on the Convention relating to the status of refugees (CRSR). This
Convention states that asylum is to be granted only to those who are in
humanitarian need or persecuted for their race, religion, nationality, and membership
of a particular social group or political opinion. NGO’s like ProAsyl doubt
that each application is considered in its own right. The high number of
similar applications gave rise to prejudices that have manifested itself
systematically. Then again, this blinds the German system to the fact that apart
from the inhumane economic conditions of Roma in Serbia, they also frequently
face serious harassment by nationalistic groups while police forces fail, or
refuse to, give the Roma the needed protection. Therefore, with the planned
expulsion of 10.000 Serbians in 2011, Germany breaches the thin line of
transgressing international Human Rights conventions.
Particularly
unsettling in a moral and legal sense is the situation of Serbian children
refugees in Germany. Of the Serbians seeking asylum in Germany, 40 percent are
children. In German asylum law, these children are not entitled to special
treatment. This means that they are treated as equals with adults. In other
words, they also fall under certain provisions of German immigration regulation
that are highly controversial. These include compulsory residence in collective
housing camps and restrictions of free movement in the city or state. This
flies in the face of the Convention of the Rights of the Child, which stipulates
a child’s entitlement to special protection and assistance provided by the
state if the child is deprived of his or her family environment (Art 20.1). The
evident lack of protective clauses for children in German asylum law strikingly
portrays the dark sides of how Germany treats its Asylum seekers. This clear
discrepancy between international conventions and German asylum law invokes the
principles of the Human Rights conventions to pay attention to this alarming
issue.
The
case of asylum seekers in Germany is a point in case for the many serious gaps
in European refugee law. Europeans but also the international community need to
raise awareness of these fundamental breaches and act upon the calls of
international organizations. We need to seal the gaping inconsistency to bring
rights and reality closer together. Germany has to put its actions where its
mouth is. Only then can Germany constitute a more true and honest example for
developing democracies in the Middle East.
Madita Weise
Amnesty Netherlands
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