MThe opposition, the refugee council and the church in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania reacted with outrage to a police operation in connection with a planned deportation of Afghans in Schwerin. The two brothers, aged 18 and 22, had been staying in church asylum and their family had apparently been assured of admission to Germany as part of the admission program for Afghanistan run by the Federal Ministry of the Interior and the Foreign Office.
On Wednesday morning, the police in the south of Schwerin tried to pick up the two young men for deportation. According to the information, there were two underage siblings and the parents of the two Afghans in the apartment. According to police, the mother tried to prevent the pickup by threatening violence against herself and her children. Special forces moved in and temporarily arrested the mother, who was therefore in a psychological state of emergency. Criminal proceedings were initiated against them for threats and coercion.
The 22-year-old man received medical treatment and is believed to have injured himself. When everyone was searched, knives were found hidden on his, his mother's and his sister's bodies.
Pastor: Acceptance in Germany confirmed
According to the Ecumenical Federal Working Group on Asylum in the Church, the mother is a well-known women's rights activist and journalist. “Asyl in der Kirche” announced that the family had been assured of admission to Germany through the admission program for Afghanistan run by the Foreign Office and the Interior Ministry. Accordingly, the German Society for International Cooperation (GIZ) had promised to take them on board. However, there was a massive delay in issuing a visa. Since the family's life was increasingly in danger in Afghanistan and they urgently needed medical treatment, they fled to Iran and arrived in Europe on a Spanish visa.
“The family had been promised admission to Germany. It is a disgrace for the authorities that the visa formalities were processed far too slowly given the risk to the life of the family,” said Pastor Dietlind Jochims, chairwoman of “Asylum in the Church”. When asked, the Federal Ministry of the Interior said it does not comment on individual cases. There was initially no confirmation of the information from the Foreign Office either.
Greens: Fatal signal
The family was staying in Schwerin in an apartment belonging to the St. Peter's Church, which is provided to asylum seekers. The church asylum had been granted since last Friday, the Northern Church said. Their refugee representative, Pastor Dietlind Jochims, called the attempted deportation of the two Afghans “shameful and incompatible with the principles of human rights.” “Here, the protective space of a severely traumatized family who was threatened with death in their homeland was violated,” said Jochims. The bishop in the Schleswig and Holstein district, Nora Steen, said the measure had “massively retraumatized” the family and was “unreasonable”. “I ask all responsible authorities to respect the church asylum shelter.”
The domestic and migration policy spokeswoman for the Green Party in the Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania state parliament, Constanze Oehlrich, called the police operation a “fatal signal” for people in church asylum. Giving people in need protection in their rooms is a centuries-old right of the churches. The state government must ensure that its subordinate authorities respect this right. According to the Refugee Council of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, the measure was the first breach of church asylum ever in the state.
By accepting people into church asylum, communities usually try to prevent deportations. These are often so-called “Dublin cases”, i.e. people who have already applied for asylum in another EU country and actually have to return there. The dilemma between the general rule of law and humanity in individual cases has been a source of controversy for years. The attempt, also pushed by the federal government, to deport more people in the future is now likely to bring the issue back into focus.
According to “Asylum in the Church”, there are currently around 455 cases of church asylum in Germany with at least 643 people, including around 105 children. This year, 534 church asylums with 776 people have already been ended.
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