Press release
of October, 30th 1998
Ruling of old cases for refugees with long-standing stay
The chairman of the Conference of the Ministers of the Interior hurries ahead with insufficient suggestion
PRO ASYL: Does the Minister of the Interior wants to sell ruling of old cases a dummy?
Ruling of old cases for refugees with long-standing stay
Nur wer Geld verdient, soll bleiben (FR 5.11.1998)
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.
In the coalition contract between the Red-Green coalition partners in Bonn of 21. October it has been agreed, that there shall be a single ruling of old cases for refugees with long-standing stay in Germany. The coalition contract wasn’t even one week old and already the chairman of the Conference of the Ministers of the Interior, the Rhineland-Palatinian Minister of the Interior Walter Zuber, hurried ahead with an insufficient suggestion. He tries to create facts by the suggestion of an absolutely insufficient ruling of old cases, which is attached to many conditions.
For the meeting of the Conference of the Ministers of the Interior at 19. and 20. November 1998 in Bonn – publicly spread by a press release of 27.October – he has put the ruling of old cases on the agenda. At the same time he communicated his conception. Only those shall get a permanent residence permit, who live since 1. January, 1990 (families with children since 1. July, 1993) in Germany, earn their own living costs, can guarantee their health insurance independently, pay taxes and welfare contributions, have got sufficient living space and didn’t become criminals.
PRO ASYL regards Zuber’s démarche as the attempt, to sell the coalition agreement, – and resulting from this the right to initiative of the Federal government for such a ruling – to a large extent a dummy, introducing via the Conference of the Ministers of the Interior this insufficient suggestion. PRO ASYL criticises the suggestion of the Rhineland Palatine Minister of the Interior for the following reasons:
The required long periods of residence in Germany would draw the circle of the beneficiaries very narrowly thus excluding in fact many of the refugees concerned from this ruling of old cases. Thus the fact hasn’t been taken into account that in many cases, there is reached already after shorter time an advanced integration. Together with churches, Trade Unions and other associations PRO ASYL has demanded, that a permanent residence permit shall be granted already after five years of stay in Germany.
Besides a very long residence period the Minister of the Interior Zuber requires among others the guarantee of living costs. Many refugees can’t take this hurdle also. Within the last years temporary suspensions of deportation were often prolonged only for a short time, even if the persons affected actually couldn’t be deported. Hardly an employer was ready then to engage people, whose temporary suspension of deportation was applicable only for few months. “ At first it has been made bureaucratically more difficult for these people, to get jobs not wanted by natives. Resulting form this unemployment and reception of supplementary aid become invincible hurdle as regards the ruling of old cases“, said Günter Burkhardt, General Secretary of PRO ASYL.
