PRO ASYL advo­ca­tes for the rights of refu­gees in Ger­ma­ny and in Euro­pe. We help them to app­ly for asyl­um. We inves­ti­ga­te human rights vio­la­ti­ons. And we cam­paign for an open socie­ty in which refu­gees recei­ve protection.

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Boat refu­gees res­cued from drow­ning. Pho­to: UNHCR / D’Amato

Per­se­cu­ti­on by ter­ror regimes, wars and civil wars, the dan­ge­rous situa­ti­on in sta­tes like Syria, Iraq, Afgha­ni­stan, Eri­trea, Soma­lia, Sudan or Libya – the­re are many reasons for fle­e­ing. World­wi­de about 60 mil­li­on peo­p­le are see­king pro­tec­tion. Most of them stay in their own regi­on. Only a small per­cen­ta­ge set out on the long and dan­ge­rous jour­ney to other countries.

30,000

peo­p­le – at least – have died at Europe’s borders.

When they do, they meet with many obs­ta­cles. Refu­gees are cri­mi­na­li­sed and descri­bed as a thre­at to the pro­spe­ri­ty and sta­bi­li­ty of socie­ty. Racist atti­tu­des are on the rise. If refu­gees to make it to Euro­pe they often run the risk of detenti­on, or of home­l­ess­ness and desti­tu­ti­on. In Ger­ma­ny, refu­gees suf­fer from exclu­si­on, a lack of decent living con­di­ti­ons and dis­re­spect for their rights. The num­ber of raci­al­ly moti­va­ted attacks has been gro­wing for years.

Our areas of activity:

We sup­port indi­vi­du­al refu­gees in their asyl­um pro­ce­du­re, when they are facing depor­ta­ti­on, and in legal and social ques­ti­ons. Through our hot­line we hear about the pro­blems refu­gees have to con­t­end with in Ger­ma­ny and Euro­pe: bureau­cra­tic harass­ment and attacks, unfair tre­at­ment, lack of assis­tance and bru­tal deter­rence measures.

PRO ASYL rese­ar­ches and docu­ments human rights vio­la­ti­ons against refu­gees – in par­ti­cu­lar, at the exter­nal bor­ders of the Euro­pean Uni­on. Cases include arbi­tra­ry detenti­on, seve­re acts of vio­lence and the ille­gal refou­le­ment (tur­ning away) of tho­se wis­hing to app­ly for asylum.

In the case of court decis­i­ons, depor­ta­ti­on is often pre­ven­ted thanks to our rese­arch and the refu­gees recei­ve pro­tec­tion. Our appeals, often lea­ding to legal dis­pu­tes on fun­da­men­tal issues, go as far as the Fede­ral Con­sti­tu­tio­nal Court, the Euro­pean Court of Jus­ti­ce or the Euro­pean Court of Human Rights.

We go public with our fin­dings: we pro­vi­de infor­ma­ti­on and cla­ri­fi­ca­ti­on, oppo­se inci­te­ment to racism and denoun­ce human rights vio­la­ti­ons – through media state­ments, publi­ca­ti­ons, cam­paigns. And we address poli­cy-makers direct­ly: our experts regu­lar­ly inter­ve­ne in legis­la­ti­ve pro­cee­dings and public deba­tes on asyl­um poli­cy to defend the rights of refu­gees and migrants.

Join us in sup­port­ing per­se­cu­ted peo­p­le and their rights. Beco­me a mem­ber of PRO ASYL.