Webjournal zum Flüchtlingskongress vom 21. April bis 1. Mai in Jena	zurück | back

Residenzpflicht - First meeting of the Committee

TOP 1: Comments on the protocol of 28.04.00

• proposal: a letter to Mrs. Marie-Luise Beck / Ausländerbeauftragte should be worked out as a reaction to her letter where she clearly advised the "Ausländerbehörden" to grant permissions for the refugees to attend the Jena congress; the "Ausländer-behörden" and the responsible employees who denied the permissions should be reported
• furthermore this letter should contain: "We, the refugees tried to respect the law, but despite your support the permissions were often refused. Now we\'d like to inform you that we are starting actions of civil disobedience to expose the inhumanity of the Residence Obligation. We\'d like to ask you to state clearly your position regarding this matter and to call for your support."

TOP 2: Leaflets

a) leaflet to the German public

• proposal for the content: explain the human rights violation, cite the law, give example for the fines, state the address/fax number of the responsible Innenminister
• legal aspect: the law for the asylum procedure states as a reason for the residence obligation that this restriction of movement is necessary for the asylum procedure - this is a definite lie; the same lie is used within the "Duldung" and the related restrictions; in fact the true motivation behind the residence obligation is the intent to control and deteriorate the lives of the refugees

b) leaflet for the refugees

• it should be stated that the "Residenzpflicht" is a refugee problem and they themselves have to take action against it
• there is the risk of punishment but there will be strong support for refugees facing punishment; this support should not only be from outside but also within the refugees themselves by individuals who are strong enough to carry out some actions on his behalf
• the residence obligation is not only a refugee problem, it is also a German problem; the refugees are so to speak doing the "dirty work" for the Germans to try to develop a more humane society also for the Germans
• German supporter groups should help distribute the leaflets and raise awareness for this problem on a daily basis
• a mixed group (refugees and supporters) of 6 people is set up to meet tomorrow (exact place and time will be announced) and write a draft of both leaflets: Omwenyeke Sunny, Cornelius Yufanyi, Kerstin, Vroni, Hano, Lansana Kamara

TOP 3: letter to the German parliament

• the amended draft is just worked out, for contributions Theophilus can be contacted
• a copy of this letter will be sent to Marie-Luise Beck / Ausländerbeauftragte, but there will also be a separate letter to her (see TOP 1)

TOP 4: Regional action day

• proposal: we should not only focus on a single action day, but carry out actions of civil disobediences daily, starting right after the resolutions of this congress are published
• this remark was discussed that if the actions start before the 8th of July, the people could be already exhausted on this date, but finally it was decided that it\'s important to start the activities right now when also the public attention is raised through the congress
• the suggestion was made to record the various actions with video-cameras and produce a little film which could be used to encourage other refugees in participating
• German support is necessary to inform refugees in remote parts of the country who have no means of contact with the Karawane, The Voice and others

TOP 5: Support for people who face punishment

• an important point is to generally raise the awareness of the public about this topic, one means could be to start recording the cases (past, present and future ones) to document whats happening and make it known to the public - this is also a task for the German support groups
• furthermore individual actions by the refugees (with the help of German supporters) are necessary, like appealing to the European Courts for Human Rights, also already recognised asylum seekers could take their cases to the courts to highlight these problems
• the refugees should take care about each other and report disappearances to the local support groups or the Karawane etc. when anything happens
• proposal: if after actions of civil disobedience someone is threatened with punishment the cases should be taken actively by the refugee (with the assistance of a trustworthy lawyer) to the courts to accuse the German government of human rights violations - this is better than waiting until the refugee is taken to the courts by the state
• suggestion to compile a "check list" of possible means against punishment to help and inform refugees who are not as well educated or informed about these matters as the politically active refugees
• question: are the Karawan, The Voice, IMRV Bremen etc. able and willing to carry out the nationwide / international distribution of information about the campaigns and possible arrests? it was noted that, Yes! each of these groups should be able to do that

TOP 6: Supplements

• the German supporters should reconsider their own position towards the residence obligation and why they themselves also strongly reject this law; they should not only support the refugees but work out actions they could take themselves
• additional information regarding the European Court of Justice: a woman from Freiburg (Sandra), who is studying law, allegedly said that there is a possibility to go directly to the European Court without first exhausting the national remedies ("Eilantrag") as was originally understood; this matter has to be clarified.

protocol taken by Maggie, Freiburg and Sunny, Wolfsburg