Press release
of September 15th, 1998
Misery of refugees in the Kosovo:
Insistent appeal of PRO ASYL
Also ignorance of German politics leads into a humanitarian catastrophe
Misery of refugees in the Kosovo (en)
Bonn will über Land abschieben
Translation-Info
This is a machine translation by the IBM-supported PERSONAL TRANSLATOR plus. It is slightly edited by combining its results with the translation of SYSTRAN. But you should not rely on it. If you want to use a translated text append or reference the original text.
Thousands of Kosovo refugees are rejected by Montenegro, ten thousands of predominantly aged people, women and children have fled to the forests and mountains. Therefore the National Human Rights Agency for Refugees PRO ASYL appeals insistently to the Federal Government and the governments of all EU countries to „open finally their gates for the rescue of human lifes and to receive refugees“.
Finally also there should take place an EU special conference of the Interior and Foreign Ministers on the reception of Kosovo refugees. „The European states close their eyes to the misery of refugees in the Kosovo „, the spokesman of PRO ASYL, Heiko Kauffmann declared.
While the situation of the refugees gets worse from day to day and their number has been increased to about 250.000 people in the meantime, the Lower Saxonian Home Secretary Glogowski nevertheless demands a repurchase of landing prohibition for the Yugoslavian airline company JAT imposed by the European Union. Others of the ministers of the Interior don’t have better things to do in view of the developing humanitarian catastrophe in the Kosovo but to look for alternatives of a deportation opportunity into the country, said Kauffmann. „The ignorance of the German politicians for internal and foreign affairs in view of this refugee misery is a catastrophe for the humanitarian interests of Germany and its obligations under international law“. The violent expulsions and the human rights violations in the Kosovo are obviously a persecution by the state. The Geneva Refugee Convention would apply for these refugees and no state is allowed to reject asylum seekers at its border.
„A democratic society mustn’t allow that the indifference of the states thinking themselves to be civilised against the victims of war, persecution and terror rises again in the immeasurable“, Kauffmann concluded.
