Germany: racism, asylum rights and racist attacks
01 November 1992
Germany's coalition partners appear to have agreed to "amend" the constitutional right to asylum, subject to the Social Democrat Party's extraordinary party convention to be held 16 November. This is a response to the demands of neo-nazis, whose violent attacks on refugees continued throughout September and October. Article 16(2) of the German constitution guarantees the right of asylum to all those fleeing political persecution. Although these terms are narrower than Article 1 of the Geneva Convention, to which Germany is a signatory, the significance of Article 16(2) is that it prevents Germany from removing any asylum-seeker without considering his or her claim. Many European countries now refuse to consider claims from people who have come through a 'safe' third country, and those who have had their asylum claim adjudicated in another country. This practice is legitimated by the Dublin Convention, signed by Germany in June 1990 but not yet ratified because of its incompatibility with the constitution.
Just two years ago talk of a "flood of refugees" was limited to the extreme Right Republikaner Party now it is established orthodoxy. German Interior Minister, Rudolph Seiters, has expressed a "certain understanding" for the violence and said it showed "there must be an end to the uncontrolled influx of foreigners". The ritual condemnation of the violence by Chancellor Kohl and others have been belied by actions: first, a rush to abandon refugees' constitutional rights; the announcement of large-scale expulsions of Romanian gypsies to take effect from 1 November; the prosecution of two leading anti-nazis, Beate and Serge Klarsfeld, for their role in a protest in Rostock against the deportations; and five neo-nazis receiving sentences of between two and a half and four years for beating to death an Angolan worker, Amadeu Antonio Kiowa, in Eberswalde during November 1990.
Germany: racist attacks
Right-wing extremists, armed with petrol-bombs, and cheered on by local residents, set a refugee-centre ablaze after three days of racist violence in the Rostock suburb of Lichtenhagen in the former GDR. The attack was the worst outbreak of violence against refugees since neo-nazis laid siege to asylum seekers in the east German town of Hoyerswerda in September 1991 (see Statewatch vol 2 no 5).
The violence was directed against refugees housed at the regional Zentrale Aufnahmestelle fur Asylbewerber (ZAST). The ZASTs, which were set up following changes in German asylum procedure in June, are centres where applicants for refugee status are held for the initial proceedings of their applications. They are frequently overcrowded, and this had been the situation at Lichtenhagen for several weeks. Indeed, many of the refugees preferred to live and sleep outside the building rather than in the intolerable conditions inside. This led to complaints by residents who, rather than blaming the local authorities who set up the centre, held the refugees responsible.
Some days before the outbreak of violence on August 22, local newspapers received, and passed on to the police, warnings of attacks on the centre. Despite this no action was taken and only thirty policemen were guarding the centre when the violence broke out. The assaults intensified as neo-nazis from Hamburg and Berlin arrived in convoys to join in. It was not until Monday morning, following a second night of violence, that 200 refugees were evacuated from the centre. That evening the police withdrew, leaving the racists a free hand to attack it and a neighbouring building which housed over a hundred Vietnamese contract workers. Neither the police, nor the fire brigade, responded when arsonists set fire to the building housing the Vietnamese.
The programme presented by the Minister of the Interior to combat racist violence concentrates on an increase in police numbers and a greater role for the Verfassungsschutz (domestic intelligence service), who will be res