Every year PRO ASYL recei­ves thou­sands of pho­ne calls, let­ters and emails from refu­gees and their rela­ti­ves. Whe­re­ver pos­si­ble, our advi­sors give prac­ti­cal sup­port. They assist with legal and social ques­ti­ons and con­nect inqui­rers with local advi­so­ry services.

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Orga­ni­s­ing pro­tec­tion and assis­tance: PRO ASYL advi­ses refu­gees and their rela­ti­ves. Pho­to: Pro Asyl

We stand by refu­gees in their asyl­um pro­ce­du­res with finan­cial resour­ces from our legal assis­tance fund. They are often despe­ra­te becau­se the aut­ho­ri­ties and courts deny them the pro­tec­tion they urgen­tly need. Their reasons for fle­e­ing are ques­tio­ned, reports of tor­tu­re and rape are igno­red. Time and again, we find that our inter­ven­ti­on brings about a tur­ning-point: with our sup­port, pro­ce­du­res often end suc­cessful­ly for the indi­vi­du­als concerned.

16-year-old Fah­ru Ali* from Soma­lia escaped his Isla­mist per­se­cu­tors at the last minu­te. His father, two sis­ters and two brot­hers had alre­a­dy been kil­led. The fami­ly busi­ness – a cine­ma – was a pro­vo­ca­ti­on to the Jiha­dists. Fah­ru Ali lan­ded at Frank­furt air­port and appli­ed for asyl­um. Yet the aut­ho­ri­ties did not pass on his appli­ca­ti­on and detai­ned him the­re, alt­hough he was still a minor. PRO ASYL mana­ged to obtain pro­tec­tion for him.

5000

PRO ASYL’s advi­sors assist an avera­ge of 5000 peo­p­le a year.

We accom­pa­ny indi­vi­du­als right up to the Fede­ral Con­sti­tu­tio­nal Court in Karls­ru­he or the Euro­pean Court for Human Rights in Stras­bourg. Some­ti­mes such pro­cee­dings have a gre­at poli­ti­cal impact. For exam­p­le, in ear­ly 2011 the Euro­pean Court stop­ped depor­ta­ti­ons to Greece on grounds of vio­la­ting the Euro­pean Con­ven­ti­on on Human Rights. In its grounds for decis­i­on, the Court express­ly men­tio­ned the docu­men­ta­ti­on and rese­arch pro­vi­ded by PRO ASYL.

Reza Ibra­him was six years old when he and his mother fled from Afgha­ni­stan to Iran, in order to escape the Tali­ban. Ten years later Reza mana­ged to cross the Aege­an Sea to Greece, whe­re the coast­guard locked him up. Time and again, Reza was sub­ject to vio­lent tre­at­ment – in Mace­do­nia, Ser­bia and Hun­ga­ry. In 2014 he final­ly made it to Ger­ma­ny, after 16 years of being on the move. Accor­ding to the EU’s Dub­lin Regu­la­ti­on, he should have been sent back to Hun­ga­ry. Final­ly the attempt to return him was stop­ped and Reza’s asyl­um case is now going ahead in Germany.

In Decem­ber 2011, the Court of Jus­ti­ce of the Euro­pean Uni­on found that it was unlawful to return refu­gees to other EU sta­tes on the basis of the Dub­lin Regu­la­ti­on wit­hout exami­ning their case – also dra­wing on infor­ma­ti­on from PRO ASYL. Legal pro­cee­dings with our sup­port in such indi­vi­du­al cases can have enorm­ous impacts on the chan­ces of other refugees.

Si Thin Thai*, a young woman from Bur­mah, took part in a demons­tra­ti­on for demo­cra­tic chan­ge. When sol­diers atta­cked the demons­tra­tors she fled to her brother’s in the coun­try­si­de. Short­ly after­wards, sol­diers abduc­ted him to do forced labour. Si Thin Thai was able to hide in a Bud­dhist monas­tery. Months later, she mana­ged to flee to Ger­ma­ny. Yet her asyl­um appli­ca­ti­on was rejec­ted. PRO ASYL took up her cau­se – and she obtai­ned asylum.

Our legal assis­tance fund, e.g. for lawy­ers’ fees, and our assis­tance for indi­vi­du­al cases are finan­ced by mem­bers’ con­tri­bu­ti­ons and donations.