PRO ASYL turns 20. Of course, we invite all subscribers of our newsletter too to celebrate with us on September 29 and 30, 2006 in the Brotfabrik in Frankfurt. The programme consists of exciting theater, film and book presentations showing what it's like to be a refugee. The night of the second day will end with a live concert and a big party. We are looking forward to meet you and welcome you in Frankfurt.

Tickets for the play "Hier geblieben!" on Friday night and the gig of the Berlin band Ohrbooten on Saturday night can be booked in advance (Theater / Concert) erhältlich.

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The Federal Office for Migration and Refugees is acting quite in style. In July 2006, month of the World Cup final, 2,373 applications for asylum were worked on. Exactly 11 people were confirmed their entitlement to asylum. 94 people were rated seconds and granted protection from deportation. Why the whole machinery of the Federal Office is needed to put together a soccer team's worth of people entitled to asylum is not clear, when at the same time Jürgen Klinsmann is able to appoint his candidates by making a few calls on his mobile. The Minister of the Interior has made it quite clear what lies behind figures like these. In a speech made on June 27th to the 'Action Group Freedom and Responsibility' (Initiative Freiheit und Verantwortung) he pointed out the historical project to steer the numbers of asylum-seekers: "As long as we had such high immigration not controlled and not controllable - only the change of the asylum law made it controllable in fact -, every attempt to control additional immigration by means of quota was bound to fail from the beginning." With the change of the asylum law the reception of asylum-seekers and refugees has become part of the subject "controlled immigration" which includes flight prevention in the European context as well as a restrictive asylum law largely not corresponding to international law and the procedural steering in the Federal Office.

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Dr. Wolfgang Schäuble, Federal Minister of the Interior, is setting out to use 'illegals' as a launchpad from where to start further decontrolling labour market and social system in Germany. In a speech held at a conference in the Evangelische Akademie Tutzing on "Integration: Magic Formula - Problems - Necessity" on July 1, 2006 he started out on the premise that significantly less illegals were living in Germany than in the Mediterranean countries, one of the reasons being the structure of the German social system. The Mediterranean countries of Southern Europe, Schäuble says, were meanwhile solving the problem of irregular immigrants by giving them a legal employment and legalizing "working conditions and sojourn in a rather simple way not living up to our systems of wage settlement". "Just recently", he continues, "have I told my colleague Müntefering that, in the face of the development of illegal immigration and the economic development in our country, we will have a solid share of low qualified employment in Germany - services of all kind. (...) It's not as if only high tech jobs were preserved in the wake of globalization and everyone else were leaving. No, a considerable share of services stay here simply because they must be carried out on-site. I have told my colleague Müntefering that we will either have this part of the labour market as an illegal one or have to decontrol our labour market and our social systems to render these services legal. This implies difficult political decisions. But it is the better choice if we don't want to drive people into illegality."

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In an extensive newspaper essay "Zur Kriminalisierung der 'Illegalen'" Klaus Jünschke has examined the way people without papers ('illegals') are dealt with and criminalized in Germany (Neue Rheinische Zeitung, August 15, 2006).

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Before the civil war in Sri Lanka flared up again the human rights organisation Human Rights Watch had already pointed in a report on Funding the 'Final War' - LTTE Intimidation and Extortion in the Tamil Diaspora in March 2006 to the fact that exiled LTTE Tamils are extorting money for their armed struggle, e.g. in Canada and Great Britain.
Dr. Roland Bell, managing editor of the BAMF-sponsored newsletter EA-Info (Decisions Asylum Info) recommends the HRW's investigation for further reading in the newsletter's August issue (p. 6). His comment, though, is a torrent of words which has almost nothing to do with the HRW's report. To Bell, the report confirms not only the existence of 'parallel worlds of migrants', but reveals also considerable 'gaps of protection' not acknowledged so far. Diese Lücken bestehen darin, dass Flüchtlinge im Ausland noch größeren Risiken ausgesetzt sind als in der Heimat: „Die Auffassung, Flüchtlinge seien in westlichen Staaten sicher oder wesentlich besser geschützt, sollte näher überprüft werden. Dafür sprechen nicht nur Kenntnisse über Zwangsspenden. Auch Berichte über vielfache Zwangsprostitution, Genitalverstümmelung, Zwangsverheiratung und Ehrenmord legen dies nahe. Die Gefährdung dürfte nicht selten größer sein als im Heimatland.“ Ausführungen dieser Art werden garniert mit ziemlich kruden Fußnoten, die belegen, in welchen Parallelwelten sich auch Inländer gelegentlich aufhalten.
Problematisch allerdings wird es dann, wenn eine derartig absurde Propaganda von einem leitenden Mitarbeiter des Bundesamtes gemacht und selbstbewusst verbreitet wird. Aber vielleicht ist dies ja auch nur ein hilfreicher Hinweis auf den Geist, der im Bundesamt weht.

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