A Bremen court has ruled that migrants receiving church asylum are not entitled to all social benefits available to them if they reside outside the district that was assigned to them by local authorities. The new ruling could set a precedent across Germany.
The Bremen ruling states that asylum seekers who leave their assigned place of residence to seek church asylum elsewhere aren't entitled to social benefits.
The State Social Court of Lower Saxony-Bremen specified that this was to prevent unauthorized internal migration of asylum seekers within Germany.
The case involved a married Iraqi couple who had sought asylum in the region. They reportedly entered Germany via Sweden, where their asylum applications had been rejected.
Later, Germany also rejected their application, ruling that the couple be returned to Sweden under the European Union's Dublin regulation, which stipulates that cases should be referred back to the first country a migrant enters in the bloc.
However, the deportation to Sweden failed. The couple could not be located by authorities at the facility in the German state of Saxony-Anhalt where they had been accommodated.
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Residence requirement key to benefits entitlement
Authorities later discovered the couple had been given church asylum by a Protestant parish in Bremen. Under a mutual agreement between the churches in Germany and various levels of government, deportation orders are not to be carried out against recipients of church asylum until it becomes a last resort.
While the couple were in church asylum at the Bremen parish, they applied for benefits payments under the Asylum Seekers' Benefits Act to afford basic clothing, food and medical services.
The church congregation was reportedly unable to secure their livelihood in the long term, they said.
However, that application for benefits was filed at the Saxony-Anhalt district the couple had fled from to seek church asylum.
District authorities there refused to grant the couple they benefits they had requested, arguing that since the two no longer lived in that district, it was no longer obliged to help.
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Fear of deportation not an excuse
Summary proceedings were launched at the Bremen Social Court to examine the legal bases for the rejection of the welfare payment. The court ruled that the decision in Saxony-Anhalt was legitimate.
Upon appeal, the regional social court confirmed the Bremen decision, saying the granting of social benefits was linked to the residence requirement in Saxony-Anhalt.
The decision further specified that the couple could move back there, where their livelihood would be secured until the deportation order to Sweden was carried out. Until such time, they would only be entitled to have their food costs and certain travel expenses covered while under church asylum in Bremen.
The ruling further specified that the couple had not managed to successfully argue why a return to Saxony-Anhalt would be unreasonable. The mere fear of being deported to Sweden was not sufficient reason, it added.
The ruling is technically tied to this case but could be used as a legal precedent in future cases with similar details.
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with AFP