More than five years ago when the preparations for the refugee congress organised amongst others by the Caravan for the Rights of Refugees and Migrants in Jena in Spring of 2000 was obstructed by the so-called Residenzpflicht law, the residential restriction for asylum seekers, our organisation „The Voice Forum“ decided to start a campaign for the abolition of this humiliating Law in Germany.
This obligation is found in paragraph 58 of the Asylum Procedure Law (Asylverfahrensgesetz). It states in effect that; during the asylum procedure for the recognition as a refugee, asylum seekers are allowed to leave the district they have been assigned to ONLY with the permission of the Foreigners’ Office.
Since 1982, which is more than 20 years now, the residence obligation law has been restricting the freedom, the personal and political rights of thousands of refugees immensely. “Residenzpflicht” criminalizes and discriminates. It makes refugees the object of humiliating racist controls and puts them under psychological and material pressure.
Due to the residence obligation, asylum seekers are subject to special repression. They are controlled by police and Border Protection Police (BGS) at stations, mostly due to the colour of their skin or overall physical outlook. These controls can be considered as racist. Furthermore, asylum seekers receive permission to leave their district only under special circumstances which are defined by the Asylum Procedure Law. Permissions for visiting relatives, except for parents and children, are within the discretion of the case manager. Permissions for visiting friends or for taking part in political events are almost never given. Violation of the residence obligation leads to criminal prosecution and even to imprisonment. Therefore, refugees are criminalized to a large extend.
Racists and fascists have further arguments against so called criminal foreigners at their disposal. “ The nationalist not only does not disapprove of atrocities committed by his own side, but he has a remarkable capacity for not even hearing about them.”(George Orwell).
The Residenzpflicht law entails the high persecution of refugees with fines or prison sentences for up to 18 months and the indiscriminate threats of deportation are enormous. The daily restriction of movements without choice of settlement violates our freedom and basic rights as
minority groups and groups of refugees and migrants.
Our inevitable campaigns for the abolition of the residence obligation law did create the awareness of the ill sufferings and the abuses in our daily lives, due to campaigns for the abolition of this law, some of the cases against the Residenzpflicht law in the courts have been dropped or won against the State Public Prosecution Officers and against the authorities in the recent years of the protest in Germany.
A law like this is unique in Germany within Europe. Therefore it is also very important for our political struggle against this law to be able to update and document all those cases for public information and enlightenment.
Adebayo Alabi.
The Voice Forum / Caravan for the Rights of Refugees and Migrants.
Information materials are available on request:
E-mail: mailto:thevoiceforum@emdash.org, http://www.thevoiceforum.org.
http://www.umbruchbildarchiv.de/bildarchiv/ereignis/bildgalerie_residenzpflicht_aktionstage.html,