Germany: Refugee politics and its deadly consequences, 1993-2005
01 May 2006
The Anti-Racist Initiative Berlin (ARI) documents deaths and injuries occurring as a consequence of Germany's refugee policies. The 13th edition of their documentation can be ordered via ari_berlin_dok@gmx.de. This is a translation of the summary:
In 2005, the number of refugees applying for asylum in Germany (28,914) was the lowest since 1983. At the same time, of 48,102 decisions taken by the Federal Office for Refugees, only 411 people were granted refugee status (0.9%). On the publication of these statistics on 8 January 2006, interior minister Schäuble announced that "the duty of those who have no right to remain to leave, will be implemented even more effectively". The hopes of most refugees, who have lived in Germany for ten years or longer, to receive a residency permit on the basis of the new immigration law which came into force in January 2005, were not fulfilled.
On the one hand, the practice of issuing "chain tolerations" (
Kettenduldungen) continues. This bureaucratic measure forces people into a state of limbo for years and which - apart from the reduction of social rights - has a traumatic effect on those concerned because of their continuous fear of deportation. Particularly affected are children and those who are traumatised through their experiences of war and torture. On the other hand, this document highlights that the deportation authorities' methods are becoming increasingly brutal. It describes how people in psychiatric institutions are violently dragged from their beds at night to be deported. Refugees are forced to take tranquillisers. Under-age children are separated from their father or mother through deportations. More "effective", as Schäuble demands, is unimaginable.
Death after deportation
It is now possible to investigate a particularly tragic case that took place in 2004. Family B. had been living with their three children in Germany for almost ten years. After a deportation order, which was stopped when the father broke down in Amsterdam, the family went into hiding. When the pregnant Tschianana Nguya tried to get treatment because of her ill-health she was arrested. After a long period in detention she was deported in a desolate condition and with two of her children (aged 2 and 10) to the Republic of Congo. There she was immediately arrested and imprisoned - detained by the police she was later held in a military camp. Due to prison conditions her health continued to deteriorate. Only one week before she was expected to give birth, she was admitted to hospital. The child lived for one hour and the 34-year old mother died eight hours later.
She left behind - somewhere in Europe - two small children and her husband and 16-year-old son.
The document examines more than 4,700 cases to describe the impact of institutional racism on its victims. The evidence reveals the impact on refugees who had hoped to find protection and security in Germany, and who finally died as a consequence of the system or who suffered injuries. The annual figures cited by the document do not, in comparison with other years, show a downward trend, they remain constant. It can be expected that there is a considerably higher number of unreported cases.
The documentation from the period of 1.1.93 to 31.12.05
- 162 refugees died on their way to Germany or at its borders, 121 of them died at Germany's eastern borders*,
- 439 refugees suffered injuries crossing the border, 259 of those at the eastern borders*,
- 131 committed suicide in face of the threatened deportation or they died in the attempt to flee from deportation, 49 of them died in deportation detention,
- 629 refugees harmed themselves because of fear from deportation or protesting the threatened deportation (the risk of hunger strikes) or tried to commit suicide, 393 of them in deportation detention,
- 5 refugees died during deportation, and
- 299 refugees were injured during deportation