The deportation of a Somali man from the German city of Bremen to Finland failed due to resistance from up to a hundred people in a church. Church and city officials then traded accusations. In recent months, church asylums have been repeatedly evicted by the authorities.
On the night of Monday to Tuesday (December 2-3), authorities in the northern German city of Bremen attempted unsuccessfully to clear a church asylum.
They wanted to arrest and deport a 25-year-old Somali man who had been given shelter by the local Protestant Zion congregation, as reported by Radio Bremen.
But the attempt reportedly failed due to resistance from the pastor and around a hundred people who spontaneously showed solidarity with the Somali. According to KNA, they blocked access to the church in an act of civil disobedience. Dozens of people had even spent the night in sleeping bags inside the church to prevent another potential deportation attempt.
The deportation was reportedly ordered by Germany's Federal Office for Migration and Refugees (BAMF). According to Bremen's Senate, the 25-year-old was to be returned to Finland, where he first entered the European Union via Russia. He also got registered there.
He later came to Germany, where he applied for asylum. He had reportedly told BAMF that he had no family in Germany.
According to KNA, the night-time deportation attempt was organized by the Bremen Migration Office and supported by the police.
Although the churches have no special legal rights, church asylum is usually respected based on an agreement between BAMF and the churches. It is considered the last resort when all other legal options have been exhausted, and it is usually only granted to people who are classified as hardship cases by the church itself.
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Claims of violence, recriminations between church and authorities
However, the Somali did not want to return to Finland under any circumstances, his lawyer told Radio Bremen as he had allegedly experienced violence at the hands of the authorities there.
The pastor of the Zion congregation, Thomas Lieberum, said he was convinced that the 25-year-old would be much better off in Germany: "He has friends and family here and feels safe."
Bernd Kuschnerus, the leading clergyman of the Bremen Protestant Church, also criticized the authorities' approach, KNA reported. Kuschnerus said the action was a clear deviation from the previous common line between the state and the churches.
"I expect that we will return to the previous good understanding between the state and the churches," he said according to KNA, adding that the church feels obliged to keep the individual in mind.
Several media outlets previously reported on the Bremen authorities' attempt to deport the man to Finland. A police spokeswoman confirmed a corresponding operation on request.
But Bremen Interior Senator Ulrich Mäurer rejected the criticism, and himself criticized the church for allegedly not adhering to a valid agreement.
According to Mäurer, BAMF had decided after intensive examination that the man had to return to Finland in accordance with Dublin rules. BAMF stuck with its decision even after a review requested by the church. "We and the churches have to accept this decision," said Mäurer.
Mäurer further said that the interior minister conference wanted to deal with this issue from Wednesday (December 4).
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Series of (failed) clearings of church asylums
According to the Protestant Church, this was the first attempt in Bremen to have a church asylum lifted by the authorities. In the past year or so, however, German authorities have increasingly been trying to ntervene in church asylum. Here's an incomplete list of (failed) attempts to clear church asylums:
- In October, a 29-year-old Afghan was deported from church asylum in Hamburg. Both the Catholic and Protestant churches as well as Hamburg factions of the Left and Green parties criticized the action.
- In May, a family from Russia in church asylum was sent back to Spain under the Dublin Regulation.
- In February, a Syrian man was removed from church asylum in the state of Rhineland-Palatinate and deported to Denmark, where he is now reportedly in prison.
- Last December, a deportation order against two young men from Afghanistan was marred by irregularities. What was meant to be a standard procedure turned into a major police raid, as the two deportees in question remained uncooperative, resisting the police for hours.
- In July 2023, the deportation of an Iraqi couple evicted from church asylum was called off.
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Over 40 years of church asylum in Germany
As the number of asylum seekers in desperate situations asking to be accepted into church asylum is reportedly growing, so is the number of people seeking help who have to be turned down.
According to the network Asylum in the Church, the number of active cases has increased from some 430 in August last year to more than 500 (as of September 18) involving at least 690 people, about 114 of whom are children.
The goal of most church asylum cases is to gain time for the authorities to re-examine his asylum case.
Authorities usually only have six months to send people back. If the asylum seekers 'serve' this time in church asylum, the danger of deportation is averted. Afterwards, asylum seekers usually get a chance to apply or re-apply for asylum and might receive subsidiary protection thereafter.
These so-called Dublin cases -- named after where this EU regulation was signed -- make up the vast majority of people in church asylum in Germany. Most of them were first registered in another EU member state, often a country on the bloc's external border like Bulgaria or Croatia where human rights violations like pushbacks and detention are reportedly widespread, although state authorities there deny these take place.
The modern church asylum movement in Germany, which was sparked in 1983 by the suicide of Turkish asylum seeker Cemal Kemal Altun, has sheltered more than 10,000 asylum seekers over the past 41 years.
It is considered the last resort when all other legal options have been exhausted or when a deportation is imminent, and it is usually only granted to people who are classified as hardship cases by the church itself.
with KNA, AFP