27.04.2010

Today, we expect the arri­val of around 180 Iraqi refu­gees from Syria who will be admit­ted by the Ger­man aut­ho­ri­ties on the basis of an admis­si­on pro­gram adopted in 2008. With this act of admis­si­on Ger­ma­ny com­pli­es with its quo­ta of appro­xi­m­ate­ly 2.500 admit­ted vul­nerable peo­p­le. The refu­gees are main­ly mem­bers of reli­gious mino­ri­ties, child­ren

Today, we expect the arri­val of around 180 Iraqi refu­gees from Syria who will be admit­ted by the Ger­man aut­ho­ri­ties on the basis of an admis­si­on pro­gram adopted in 2008. With this act of admis­si­on Ger­ma­ny com­pli­es with its quo­ta of appro­xi­m­ate­ly 2.500 admit­ted vul­nerable peo­p­le. The refu­gees are main­ly mem­bers of reli­gious mino­ri­ties, child­ren and young peo­p­le as well as peo­p­le with rela­ti­ves living in Germany.

The EU Minis­ters of the Inte­ri­or agreed in 2008 to admit about 10.000 espe­ci­al­ly vul­nerable refu­gees from Iraq, but until today only 3.300–4.000 indi­vi­du­als recei­ved the aut­ho­riza­ti­on to be admit­ted by a mem­ber sta­te of the EU. This exam­p­le shows that the Euro­pean soli­da­ri­ty con­cer­ning Iraqi refu­gees does not work at all. A con­ti­nuous resett­le­ment pro­gram for the admis­si­on of refu­gees is urgen­tly nee­ded. Bin­ding annu­al quo­tas are nee­ded ins­tead of sin­gle actions that do not real­ly reli­e­ve the situa­ti­on on site.

Given the situa­ti­on in the regi­ons of ori­gin with more than a mil­li­on refu­gees, the admis­si­on of 2.500 peo­p­le by Ger­ma­ny remains a drop in the oce­an. PRO ASYL has the­r­e­fo­re initia­ted an E‑Mailing in Febru­ary 2010: “Taking Respon­si­bi­li­ty – Admit Refu­gees”. It requests the Minis­ter of the Inte­ri­or – Tho­mas de Mai­ziè­re – to admit more Iraqi refu­gees from Syria, Jor­dan and Tur­key and to join the resett­le­ment pro­gram of the United Nati­ons which obli­ges the par­ti­ci­pa­ting sta­tes to annu­al­ly admit a rele­vant num­ber of refu­gees. More than 3.000 sup­port­ers signed the appeal.