Urgent Letter ADDRESSES Scholz and Leaders of Federal States: A Matter of Urgent Importance
"Scrap the idea of offloading asylum responsibilities to foreign nations," urges a petition signed by over 300 organizations. Addressees: Chancellor Scholz and the State Premiers. The letter's writers are against the Third Country proposals not just for altruistic reasons.
Before the talks between the Federal Chancellor, the State Premiers, and the Interior Ministers, more than 300 organizations petitioned Olaf Scholz and the State Premiers against outsourcing asylum procedures to foreign nations. The request in the petition: "Please reject plans for the offshoring of asylum processes." Among the signatories are Amnesty International Germany, Doctors Without Borders, and Pro Asyl.
The Interior Ministers Conference in Potsdam, running from Wednesday to Friday, will focus on immigration and asylum policy matters. Also on the agenda is the controversial proposal to deport serious offenders and Islamic extremists to Syria and Afghanistan. Scholz had stated after the fatal knife attack in Mannheim at the end of May that he aimed to make this possible again. During the State Premiers' Conference on Thursday, immigration was expected to be a significant topic. The examination of outsourcing asylum procedures to Third Countries is currently being conducted by the Federal Ministry of the Interior.
The letter's writers contend that integration and participation functions well when everyone works together. "Plans to deport refugees to third-world countries or to process asylum applications outside the EU don't work in practice, are exorbitantly expensive, and pose a threat to the rule of law."
"These plans could result in foreseeable egregious human rights violations such as mass detention or the deportation of people to countries where they face inhumane treatment or persecution," it continues. The ongoing debate, according to the writers, already has consequences. "Such plans often cause great fear among refugees and increase the risk of self-harm and suicide."
In a joint statement,Diakonie, Bread for the World, and the Evangelical Church in Germany also called for the abandonment of deportations to Afghanistan or Syria. The plans to outsource asylum procedures to Third Countries are "unsustainable and ethically questionable," criticized the President of Bread for the World, Dagmar Pruin. "Avoiding one's own responsibility for suffering people by delegating the task to poorer countries is irresponsible, unjust, and unrealistic. It effectively abolishes asylum law," added the President of the Synod of the Evangelical Church in Germany, Anna-Nicole Heinrich.
