Germany: Asylum and immigration (2)
01 January 1991
Germany: Asylum and immigration
artdoc April=1995
Inhumane asylum policies under the spotlight
Germany's Commissioner for Immigrants, Cornelia Schmalz-Jacobsen,
has called for `a complete review of the situation over
deportations'. Concern is growing over the number of deaths in
detention and the implications of `mass deportation' policies.
Following a parliamentary question, it has been officially
acknowledged that fifteen asylum-seekers have died in police
detention or during deportation procedures since October 1990.
The overwhelming number were suicides. And Berlin's police chief,
Hagen Saberschinsky has described the conditions under which
deportees are kept in crammed police stations as an `elementary
violation of the law'. Several recent court-rulings have also
backed this view. Amnesty International and Pro-Asyl have
criticised the fact that Turkey, Rwanda, Burundi, Angola, Liberia
and Afghanistan are on a list of so-called safe countries to
which asylum-seekers could be returned (Guardian 28.10.94).
Nigeria protests horrifying catalogue of asylum-deaths
Following the death of a Nigerian asylum-seeker at Frankfurt
airport on 31 August, Nigeria has protested to the German
government over the death of 25 Nigerian asylum-seekers over the
past three years which happened while they were in police custody
awaiting deportation. Now, interior ministry officials in each
of the western federal states where the 25 deaths occurred have
been asked to mount separate inquiries. A spokeswoman for the
Nigerian Embassy said : `Being an asylum-seeker should not be a
licence for people to be hounded to death. The Embassy have
highlighted the fact that they only learn of the deaths when the
deceased passports are returned to the embassy... In most of
these 25 cases our citizens were being held in police custody and
died of brain haemorrhages.' The Embassy are sceptical of claims
that the deportees drowned or committed suicide. In one case
cited by the Nigerian Embassy, that of Omah Osazuwa, a police
report says that she committed suicide in prison in Regensburg,
Bavaria, on 8 December 1993. But according to Ms. Boloker:
`Nigerians are not a people who take their own lives easily. It's
not in our culture or religion' .
The case that started the Nigerian protest was that of Kola
Bankole who died at Frankfurt airport after he resisted
deportation to Nigeria. He was handcuffed and injected with a
large dose of sedatives. German human rights activists have
accused the police and authorities of a huge cover-up. Following
the Nigerians' protest, a Nigerian deportee received serious
injuries at Frankfurt airport while attempting to escape. He, and
two fellow Nigerians attempted to jump from the waiting plane but
were recaptured (Taz 17.9.94).
Fourteen dead bodies recovered from River
The Berlin-based Anti-Racist Initiative says that fourteen bodies
have been found this year on the banks of the river dividing
Poland from Germany. Foreign passports were found on nine of the
bodies, but the nationality of the others is unknown (Taz
18.10.94).
Two prison suicides
A 43-year-old Chinese man awaiting expulsion hung himself in a
jail in Magdeburg in May. Following his death, thirty other
foreigners awaiting deportation broke windows and erected
barricades (International Herald Tribune 4.5.94).
A Moroccan man, Abdullah J., hung himself in a prison cell
after his application for asylum was refused. Abdullah had been
engaged to marry a German citizen which would have given him the
right to stay but it seems that the necessary documents had not
reached him (Taz 22.10.94).
Togolese/German collaboration on asylum-seekers alleged
There is concern that the German authorities have handed personal
details, including the names of relatives, of around 4500
Togolese asylum-seekers to the authorities in their homeland (Taz
21.9.94).
Hunger strike
Local trade unions have