10 Point Paper of DIE LINKE Parliamentary Group on Current Challenges of Asylum Policy

The world-wide number of refugees has never been higher since World War Two with 60 million people on the run. Terrible wars and expulsions mainly in Africa, the Near and Middle East, human rights violations and dictatorial regimes, extreme social poverty and processes of exclusion and empoverishment, as well as the destruction of the environment force ever more people to migrate.

Even though only a minority of refugees crosses their states’ borders and only an even smaller minority succeeds to find refuge in industrialised, wealthy countries – for Germany the lately clearly increased number of up to 800.000 prognosed asylum seekers poses a challenge. The humane admission, accommodation and supply of refugees is nontheless a humanitarian duty under international law, which the economically strong Germany could and has to fulfill ideally; in solidarity and strictly according to human rights.

If admission of refugees is organised in a constructive way, the protection of refugees offers many positive aspects and also chances for the admitting society. If, on the other hand, the idea of deterrence and initiatives fighting against an allegedly widespread “abuse” of asylm prevail, existing prejudices, right-wing parties and slogans, and racism among the population will increase even more. Compared with this it is necessary to systematically bolster the impressive number of civil society actors, associations and persons supporting refugees. Together with them a joint political message should be promoted: refugees are warmly welcome and will be decently admitted, get a fair asylum procedure and protection. In the long run, it is crucial to effectively fight the reasons of migration, not the refugees. This needs fundamental changes to foreign, economic and development policy.

Already in January 2015, the parliamentary group of DIE LINKE made extensive proposals “For a fundamental change of asylum policy” included in the motion “Welcoming refugees”. The following list puts those claims once more in a nutshell, considering current developments and the proposals of DIE LINKE “For a turnaround in EU asylum policy”.

10 Demands

1.   Humane admissions as a federal responsibility – instead of overextension of local authorities

The task to humanely accommodate refugees is not asking too much of Germany. In 1997 altogether more than one million refugees of different status lived in Germany – in the middle of 2015 there were 250.000 less of them living here. Despite all social disparities and solidified poverty, Germany is a wealthy and economically strong country in global comparison.

The admission of refugees is an international duty which may not be burdened on overstrained local authorities. If towns and communities’ capacities regarding the accommodation of lately highly increased numbers of asylumseekers are strechted to their limits this is mainly because the federal level did not participate structurally in funding admission, accommodation and provision of asylum seekers. Instead, there were only insufficient one-time ad-hoc subsidies lately.

Furthermore, a rag rug of the most diverse regulations in the different federal states must be lamented, which are seldom cost-covering and apply different procedures and standards regarding the accommodation and provision of asylum seekers. A long-term planning based on realistic assessments of future numbers of refugees is needed to avoid emergency shelters with unacceptable living conditions. DIE LINKE thus asks for a refugees’ admission regulation that predetermines homogenous and common federal standards and procedures for the admission of refugees. Core feature will be the absorption of all accommodation and provision costs by the federal level for the duration of the asylum procedure and for a transition period after approval. Federal states and municipalities remain responsible for promoting and safeguarding the integration of asylum seekers and persons entitled for protection on site, especially in the areas of school, culture, civic participation as well as in supporting them to find work and accommodation.

2.   New guiding principle: Integration from the beginning – instead of excluding regulations

The principle of admission should be a fast integration of asylum seekers from the beginning. A majority of persons looking for protection is awarded protection status by authorities and courts and remains permanently in Germany. The viable approval quote of the federal office for migration and refugees was 49.1 per cent in the first half of  2015; about ten per cent of all judicial complaints of asylum seekers are successful. Often, asylum seekers who were not awarded admission are also not deported for humanitarian reasons, often for a long time. That is why integration measures need to be started as soon as possible in the interest of the refugees but also of the admitting society. People want to work, participate, and be part of society and no longer than necessary depend on public aid.

This requires among others: access for asylum seekers to integration and language courses, the suspension of existing restrictions regarding labour market access and a strategy of labour market integration for refugees, e.g. also for identifying and developing existing qualifications and skills. We do not need the prevention of integration via law by exclusion from integration courses, ban from working and priority assessments, discriminating regulations of social and health care supply (so called asylum seekers benefits regulation AsylbLG) and the so called residential obligation, criminalising asylum seekers if they exercise their human right of free movement. The currently debated extension of discriminating allowances-in-kind, meant to deter refugees, would be an unconstitutional violation of human dignity and has to be rejected. Such a policy of rights deprivation leads furthermore to massive additional costs due to administrational efforts: according to AsylbLG expenditure per person in the “camp and allowances land” Bavaria was despite restrictive law implementation 40 percent above federal average in 2013.

3.   Against a classification in allegedly “good” and “bad” refugees

The dangerous political strategy to bind the right-wing conservative part of population by speaking of a “massive abuse of asylum” and demanding allegedly necessary tightenings of laws, needs to be stopped immediately! This undermines the currently existing readiness of the population to welcome refugees and creates prejudices against them. People fleeing to us may not be put against each other, as if rigidity towards refugees from the Western Balkans is a prerequisite for the humanitarian admission of war refugees. Such an attitude and way of thinking is contrary to human rights, inhumane and also unchristian, a point the churches repeatedly bring to mind.

Romani from the Western Balkans, discriminated against and racially and socially excluded, need protection. Especially the federal republicof Germany has a double responsibility in this regard: historically, facing the murder of around half a million Romani people by Nazi-Germany – many of the Romani fleeing to us are descendants of the survivors of this time. Politically, because the German recognition policy contributed to the disintegration of Yugoslavia due to war and Romani have been primarily expelled from Kosovo as a consequence of the interventions of NATO and Germany which were not according to international law.

Asylum validations in Germany regarding Romani refugees from the Western Balkans proceed mainly schematically and totally insufficient. By categorizing countries as “safe” officials try to get rid of unwanted refugees without much bureaucratical effort.  Discriminations and life-threatening human rights violations are hereby not taken into consideration – different from other European host countries where Romani receive asylum or humanitarian protection more often.

The individual basic right of asylum needs to be warranted unconditionally, there need to be humane admission conditions and fair asylum procedures for all refugees. Systematically discriminated and persecuted Romani need protection. The flat categorisation of countries as “safe” has to be rejected fundamentally. In reality this has actually no effect on the number of refugees, as up-to-date access figures demonstrate. Reasons for migration cannot be resolved away. The planned building of special camps for the concentrated dismission and fast deportation of asylum seekers from the Western Balkans, which especially applies to Romani, is inhumane, blind to history, and irresponsible.

4.   Against camps and forced allocation – reinforce decentral accommodation and social housing, using private contacts and initiatives

The accommodation of asylum seekers in mostly very remote mass shelters is opposed to the aim of fast integration. Decentral accommodation and the rental of private flats must have priority.There must be a secured market segment of municipal housing cooperatives as well as support for apartment searching, application, and absorption of deposits, etc.

The ruling system of allocating asylum seekers among the federal states after rigid quotas and an obligatory accommodation in first admission facilities does not take into account existing family ties (beyond the core family) and available living space. This is incomprehensible, especially regarding the current shortage in accommodations.

DIE LINKE demands that asylum seekers can take accommodation with relatives and friends, against adequate refund of the costs if possible and reasonable for the persons involved. Thereby a lot of money could be saved, which is currently thrown at private profiteers of the need of asylum seekers. Furthermore, refugees should be able to rent private living space all around the country, if they wish to do so and are offered something. Respective placement efforts should be coordinated and supported on federal level, also to be able to use vacant living space in everybody’s interest.

There must not emerge competition on the housing market pitting different socially excluded groups against each other. DIE LINKE therefore demands a concerted restaging of social house building aiming at offering persons with a low income access to good living spaces. Also, new ways must be pursued in accommodating refugees: e.g. programmes for the utilisation of vacant living space, funding of placing persons in living communities that are able and willing to admit new inhabitants, active participation in generation spanning or artistic living projects and the building of living unities that could afterwards easily be used differently by students, homeless persons or otherwise.

5.   Fast and fair asylum procedures – Get the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees working again by generous special provisions

Fair and at the same time fast asylum procedures matter for asylum seekers who need clarity about their legal status and their future after an often month- or even year-long odyssey. Currently, there is an enormous accumulation of applications at the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees (FMOR), responsible for the scrutiny of asylum applications; by the end of July 2015 there were more than 250.000 pending procedures. The asylum procedure takes far too long: the offical average of currently 5.4 months – for countries of origin like Afghanistan, Eritrea or Pakistan it might even take a year – hides the true duration of the procedure. From the first appeal for asylum in Germany until application it often takes weeks and months due to bureaucratic obstacles, which are not even statistically considered. It is incomprehensible why procedures of asylum seekers from Syria, Iraq, or Eritrea take between four and fourteen months, despite chances for recognition lying between 99 and 100 per cent.

Therefore, DIE LINKE demands a bundle of measures to enable the FOMR to reach good and fast decisions:

-      a prompt and need-based increase of qualified staff

-      a generous “old case settlement” for cases pending longer than one year; this concerns around 57.500 refugees which cannot be made responsible for unreasonable long procedures

-      discontinue complex procedures to assess responsibility after EU Dublin regulation, taking on average nearly four month. Already the FOMR largely forgoes the Dublin regulation regarding Syrian refugees and asylum seekers from the Western Balkans or refugees having arrived via Greece – i.e. a large majority of all asylum seekers. The Dublin system has long since failed: Merely every tenth asylum seeker was send from Germany to the EU country considered responsible. The Dublin system has no efficient distributional effect. Instead, the integration of asylum seekers is delayed and offices and courts are flooded with procedures to verify the travel routes of refugees or the asylum conditions in other EU member states.

-      There should be no more automatic assessment of asylum revocation three years after recognition; no other country is doing this and in 95 per cent of all cases it leads to nothing – nothing but unnecessary procedures and uncertainty of the applicants.

6.   Reinforce readiness for admission and civil society initiatives

The many civil society initiatives for a good admission of refugees need to be strengthened systematically: structurally, ideally, and financially. It would be fatal if, due to political conflicts, the great hospitality of the population would be constrained to those refugees that are considered as worthy to need protection, while other refugee groups are excluded from this readiness. This would altogether undermine the solidary attitude of great parts of society. On the other hand, urgendly needed public tasks, e.g. a qualified psycho-social care and treatment of traumatised refugees may not be left to the volunteers which have no special education. Professional offers need to be linked to the active support structures on site.

7.   Actively and comprehensively fight against racism in society

Beside a great hospitality there is also an unmissable wave of racist and growingly violent attacks on refugees and refugee shelters. The growing case numbers are shameful and terrifying as much as the dwindling distance of parts of the population to organised right-wingers, the Nationalist Party and Neonazis.

The long lasting too sympathetic political approach towards the anti-islam, anti-immigrants so called “Pegida” movement was a clear mistake: Thereby openly hostile and anti-democratic attitudes towards refugees were made socially acceptable, the number of racist attacks on refugees and shelters during this time increased noticably. Chancellor Merkel, accurately but unfortunately too late, declared that those that attack the dignity of others would not be tolerated. It must be clear, that the state has to guarantee all asylum seekers alike a fair procedure and humane admission conditions.

Racism is also reinforced by state activities such as systematic police controls guided by the physiognomy or the origin of the person (racial profiling). People are thus, in a public prejudgement, exposed as alleged criminals, e.g. during controls in trains or at train stations. Such groundless identity checks need to be abolished, as well as the criminal offence of “illegally entering the country”, which mainly affects refugees. This would also relieve police which could then turn to its core task of protecting the public safety.

8.   For a fundamental reform of the EU Dublin regulation

Regarding asylum policy, the EU member states currently fall back into nationalist solutions. Instead of pursuing a solidary and open common solution the work against each other dominates with each state trying to seclude itself in a different way.  This unworthy and criminalising dealing with refugees needs to be terminated urgently. The current “Nimby” policy endangers the basic pillars of free movement and control free travelling in the EU.

DIE LINKE demands a fundamental change of the Dublin regulation. It loads the main responsibility for the admission of refugees one-sidedly onto those member states at the EU external borders, currently mainly on Greece and Italy. These countries are utterly unable to cope with the admission of a majority of the refugees wanting to reach Europe. Greece is in dire straits itself, with a great part of the population fighting for their means of existence. Germany, on the other hand, has even profitted from the economic and financial crisis. Therefore, it is adequate that Germany admits a higher number of asylum seekers corresponding to its economical power.

The alternative to the current Dublin system and to the proposals of a proportionate allocation of asylum seekers is the free choice of  refugees where they want to live. This “free choice” model is also demanded by many associations. All of a sudden, controls and deportations within the EU became superfluous. Existing family ties and language skills could be used in a positive way, instead of sending people against their will from one country to another. A possible distributional imbalance could be financially compensated, corresponding to the size and economic opportunities of the respective member states. Refugees often can clearly judge for themselves in which country they will have no realistic opportunities for integration after recognition. Those countries have to be supported in building a good and attractive admission system in the framework of the EU.

9.   For safe and legal travel routes – end the mass dying at the EU’s external borders

Tens of thousands of people died already at the external borders of the EU, most of them in the Mediterranean which has become a mass grave. More and higher fences are built at the European borders, most recently in Hungary, which trains “border control units” in defence of refugees. A police commander said that there will be “no firing order against refugees”. For perfecting the barrier the EU created an agency called FRONTEX, but there is no coordinated mission assigned for effective sea rescue.

All this demonstrates: There must be a paradigm shift in EU asylum policy. The EU acts towards asylum seekers like in cases of a catastrophe and primarily banks on deterrence and resistance. Refugees may no longer be treated as criminals or a heavy burden; they need legal and safe travel routes, good admission conditions and protection. Instead of funding deterrence, border fences or detention camps with billions, the focus should lie on the integration and future of refugees. Let us use their potential, skills and power! The EU now has to prove, that it can accomplish the task of admitting refugees according to human rights and in solidarity.

10.  Fight the reasons of migration instead of refugees

The talk of fighting the reasons of migration must not remain a mere phrase and be used as a lame excuse for the deterrence policy against refugees. But this is the way many responsible politicians use it at present.

A radical policy change is needed, which unsheathes the claim to transform circumstances such that people are not forced anymore to leave their home country. This requires concrete action mainly in foreign, economic, and development policy, to which ruling officials are, however, not ready. DIE LINKE stands for a ban on arms exports, for a precautious peace policy, and diplomacy for preventing and terminating conflicts. We demand a just economic world order, fair trade relations instead of defrauding free trade agreements and a stop of EU subsidized exports of food products to protect home markets and grown economies.

Germany may not live at the expense of other peoples and countries! We need to share the wealth, stand for a just world order, and keep the boders open for people in need. Migration to Germany is also a consequence of extreme economic disparities. The improvement and adjustment of living conditions in the EU and world wide is thus a central political goal of DIE LINKE.