Some refugees who live in Wuppertal publish a statement about their situation an the proposed new asylum law.
Some refugees who live in Wuppertal publish an own statement about the planned tightening of asylum on World Refugee Day. We asked for it, because of all their opinion is missing in an often racist public debate about the future treatment of refugees in Germany, although they will have to live with the changes. The statement should also be a beginning by the refugees to form a new kind of a common solidarity, which seems to be neccessary facing a law of „Selection, Internment and Deportation“ (article about the new law by a friend in German). The statement will be spread at different events from and for refugees in Wuppertal during the next days. w2wtal and some of the authors would also like to discuss the text and the possibilies to organize joint actions on Saturday, October 3 at „Café Stil-Bruch“ during the „Refugees Welcome Area Ölberg“-evening at Otto-Böhne Platz.
Here comes the complete statement (deutsch, arabic العربية)
Looking for solutions with us, not against us!
You make differences in the refugees – we do not!
After a stressful, uncertain and sometimes dangerous journey, we are grateful to live here in safety now. We want to thank all people who gave us a warm welcome and support us. This helps a lot.
But now we have learned that the German government plans to change the law on asylum, after more people arrived in Germany who were taking refuge with us. Many points in the draft of the new law make us feel that there is a search for solutions against us instead of finding solutions with us.
Our position is quite different. Many people from Syria are often worried about their families who are still living in the war zone, other refugees are very afraid of being send back to inhumane camps and countries, in which the local authorities do not care at all about new arriving refugees and where they can’t live. But all people who arrived in Germany face similar problems here, regardless of the situation in their home-countries, their origin and the individual reasons which forced them to leave their home, their friends and sometimes even their families.
The situation for us and also for the German people is complicated. We would like to look for solutions together. We believe that the implementation of our wishes could be useful not only for us but also for the whole situation. Unfortunately, we find nothing of it in the plans for a new right of asylum, most points in the draft even seem to mean the opposite.
For us as people who fled the key points are:
- All people who are in Germany now should be able to remain. We think it’s terrible, when it’s said that if some of us are allowed to stay, others have to leave Germany as a compensation. We as refugees see no difference in whether someone was forced to leave his country because his or her life was threatened due to lack of opportunities and rights, or whether a person had to flee, because his or her life was threatened by others. Differences between us are made by the authorities, not by us!
- The decision-making process, whether we are allowed to stay, must be transparent. The processes which decide about our requests for asylum are lengthy and complicated. Almost all of our life decisions depend on this process, so it’s hard to understand why some decisions go very quickly while others take a long time. If someone has to wait, it’s good to know how long you have to wait. But nobody explains to us why things take so long and how decisions will be made. For people who hope to get their relatives out of the the warzones every day, the process takes too long.
- Everyone who has reached Europe should be able to choose where he or she wants to live. Sometimes even sons and daughters aren’t allowed to live in the same town where her parents live, although relatives and friends could help each other well to begin a new life in Germany. The People in Europe should also accept that people who risk everything to find a new perspective can’t be resettled easily in such countries where they again won’t find any perspective. The „Dublin“ system is inhuman and unjust. It should be abolished immediately.
- It should be allowed for all people to look for work in Germany. Every human wants to work and wants to care for themselves. To work is part of our dignity. A person who works also needs no support and may even support others. Many of us have a profession. We do not understand why it’s so hard, to work here in this profession again. The prohibition to look for jobs will instead be expanded for many of us. People with an uncertain status won’t be allowed to work for the whole time of their asylum-process . This is not understandable.
- All should have access to education and to language courses indiscriminately. Why do some get help in learning German and others are not allowed to go to courses? Many refugees are young, some were still in school or have studied before their flight. We have heard its not even intended to provide school education for our children in some camps in the future. In our opinion this is stupid and wrong. All children should have the opportunity to learn, no matter where they come from or who their parents are.
These are our main points. How they could be realized and what difficulties may arise, we would like to discuss with the people we are now living with and we want to work on solutions together.
This statement of some refugees who live in Wuppertal now was discussed and formulated with w2wtal (welcome2wupertal) and
it is supported by „kein mensch ist illegal“/„no one is illegal“ Wuppertal
To download as pdf-file and spread the statement, use the following links:
