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Katina Schubert

So Called Refugee’s Summit: Proof of Failure and Denial of Reality

To the results of the so called Refugee’s Summit of federal and Land level in the chancellery Katina Schubert, member of the Executive Board of DIE LINKE, declares:

The so called Refugee’s Summit laboured and delivered – nothing. Yet, the necessity to do something is obvious. More than 50 million people worldwide are seeking refuge, more than ever since 1945.  And the number will not decrease. Only very few are looking for protection and admission here. To grant this is one of the noblest duties of one of the wealthiest countries in the world. The federation is ducking the responsibility and thinks to contribute anything to the problem by racist propaganda about allegedly too small deportation figures. Quiet to the contrary:

Municipalities need support to create humanitarian accommodations for refugees. This includes more solid financial resources of municipalities. This includes the federation to release its vacant properties in the common interest and not to flog it at current prices. This includes the recruitment of more well-trained decision-makers to speedily implement asylum procedures. This matters to the refugees for which an open situation is nerve-racking. Lands and municipalities are asked to provide humanitarian accommodations, decentralised in flats and houses. The increase in refugee’s numbers was not unexpected but loomed ahead since the end of 2010. That now frantically – as happened in Berlin and elsewhere – living containers and tents are being set up with the reasoning everything else would take too long is only proof of the lasting refusal to acknowledge reality and to bank on determent instead of recognition.

We need a welcoming culture, easily opening the way into society for refugees. That requires the abolition of discriminating laws and regulations such as the German social welfare Law for asylum seekers and the residential obligation. That requires the immediate suspension of the working prohibition, opening of all education and training possibilities, unlimited access to health care and social security. This is what minister-presidents should talk about with the Chancellor on December 11!