Press release
Dezember, 23th 1998
Christmas 1998:
„The Stable of Bethlehem is Today Church Sanctuary“
PRO ASYL Reminds of the Emergency of Many Refugees
End of Detention Pending Deportation
and Exclusion Demanded
„The Stable of Bethlehem is Today Church Sanctuary“
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.
On the occasion of forthcoming Christmas the Nation-wide Human Rights Organisation for Refugees PRO ASYL reminds of the psychological and social emergency of many refugees and asylum-seekers in this country, to which humane accommodation is refused also in the rich inn Germany.
„The Holy Family would be seized without documents at the search for a place to stay and sent immediately to detention pending deportation; the stable of Bethlehem is today the church sanctuary!“, declared PRO ASYL-spokesperson Heiko Kauffmann.
Kauffmann reminded of the death of Emanuel Tout at Christmas five years ago. The young Christian man from Sudan was one of the first refugees to commit suicide as a act of despair after the increase of the right of political asylum in 1993. He has been followed in the meantime by more than 30 people, more than 100 individuals attempted to so.
An „often only still formal rule of law““, so Kauffmann, PRO ASYL sees also in the treatment of refugees after the anew increase of the Act on Benefits for Asylum Seekers. Every single day the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights of the United Nations, who has been promulgated shortly before Christmas 1966, is violated by German authorities. The German signature of this convenant includes the obligation to continuously implement the necessary basic conditions for the right on and the participation in food, housing, labour and health. The national legislation would be an offensive declaration of the opposite. PRO ASYL demands the end of social exclusion of refugees.
Kauffmann called upon to start a trend in 1999 – the 50. Anniversary of the Basic Rights of the Constitution – with „signs of hope and solidarity against the unworthy treatment of human beings“ by personal courage and concrete aid for refugees.
