SEEKING ASYLUM IN GERMANY

The FrauenComputerZentrumBerlin e.V.  is offering a free digital empowerment training program to improve the media competence of women migrants and refugees in the city. The course, which begins on 12 August, aims at improving the computer and language skills of the participants, who will learn how the Internet, computer and smartphone work and how they can use these technologies independently …

A man has been charged to the Aschaffenburg district court on Thursday (16 July) for having called for the commission of a criminal offence on a website on the subject of “citizen asylum”. The accused man from Hanau is listed as the person responsible in the imprint of the website, as the court and public prosecutor’s office confirmed on Wednesday. …

For the first time since the beginning of the corona pandemic, a group deportation flight took off from Frankfurt Airport on Tuesday (14 July). On board the plane to Islamabad in Pakistan were 19 Pakistani nationals who had been deported mainly from Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg. This was confirmed by the federal police at Frankfurt Airport to the newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung. …

The police of North African countries to prevent refugees from crossing the Mediterranean to Europe. EU Interior Ministers and their North African counterparts have agreed. Amnesty sharply criticises agreement. Europe is also relying on African police to stop refugees crossing the Mediterranean. Germany’s Federal Ministry of the Interior announced in Berlin, the interior ministers of EU countries and North African …

As Germany grapples with the coronavirus crisis, Chuks Lewis Ehiwario,  migrant rights activist and Vice Chairman, Foreigners Advisory Council of the city of Kassel, makes a case for refugees and asylum-seekers whose situation seems to be forgotten in the public health crisis caused by the COVID-19 epidemic: —– Today, our way of life has changed because of COVID-19 and the …

Nearly half of the roughly 600 people at a refugee camp in Germany have tested positive for the new coronavirus (Covid-19). The number of cases among residents of the country’s initial reception facility (Landeserstaufnahmeeinrichtung or LEA) in the town of Ellwangen, which has been under quarantine, increased from seven to 251 within two weeks. The town is situated in Baden-Wurttemberg, …

According to a ruling by the Osnabrück Social Court (Sozialgericht), asylum-seekers can have their cash benefits cut if they have already applied for asylum in another EU country Cities and counties may reduce cash benefits to an asylum-seeker according to a ruling by the Osnabrück Social Court if they have already applied for asylum in another country. The court in …

Germany plans to deport more Nigerians this year, according to a new report by the international broadcaster Deutsche Welle or DW. The government says there’re about 12,000 Nigerians in the country whose asylum applications have been rejected and have been asked to leave the country. Moreover, more than 20,000 cases filed by Nigerians are yet to be concluded. Going by …

Germany’s federal police chief said a lack of pre-deportation facilities is hampering the deportation of rejected asylum seekers and illegal foreigners to third-countries. Germany is struggling to deport rejected asylu-seekers, the country’s top police chief said on Wednesday. Federal police chief Dieter Romann blamed a lack of pre-deportation facilities for deportations not being carried out. Speaking to Germany’s Funke media group, he said …

The Embassy of Nigerian in Germany has denied issuing travel documents indiscriminately for the deportation of failed Nigerian asylum-seekers from the country. Alhaji Mohammed Bello Musa Anka, Minister for Consular & Immigration, explained that before an Emergency Travel Certificate (ETC) is issued the recipient must have been interviewed by officials of the embassy to ascertain that they’re indeed Nigerians and …

Last year, Nigeria was one of the main countries of origin of asylum-seekers in Germany. Against this background, the Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung invited German and Nigerian officials to a technical roundtable discussion in Berlin on Thursday. Among others, the experts discussed how to make rejected Nigerian asylum-seekers leave Germany voluntarily and explore possible solutions to irregular migration from their country. Femi Awoniyi, …

"There are massive deficiencies at certain locations, which results in asylum applications being rejected in large numbers ... all those seeking protection must find equal opportunities throughout Germany."

“Many of the deportees roam about in Lagos and are homeless because no provisions had been made by the Germans or our own government for their dignified reception”

Twenty Nigerians were deported to their home country on 19 August. Our correspondent Raphael Adenaike was at the Lagos airport when the deportees arrived and they narrated their personal ordeals and experiences with the German police, immigration officials and medical doctors as well as the Nigerian Embassy to Raphael (read article here). Raphael also spoke with pro-refugee activists in Lagos …

Our Correspondent in Nigeria, Raphael Adenaike, was at the Lagos airport when Nigerian deportees, including a single mother of one, arrived from Germany on Monday 19 August. The deportees, whose asylum applications had been rejected, narrated their personal ordeals and experiences with the German police, immigration officials and medical doctors as well as the Nigerian Embassy to Raphael. With little …

The so-called ‘Orderly Return Law’ (das Geordnete-Rückkehr-Gesetz) was approved in June. It went into force on Wednesday (21 August). It gives authorities and police more powers to enforce deportation orders. Critics fear more refugees could now be legally detained. The tightening of rules governing the deportation of rejected asylum-seekers took effect on Wednesday. Federal Interior Minister Horst Seehofer (CSU) said …

No fewer than 20 Nigerian migrants have been deported by the German authority, The African Courier can confirm. The migrants arrived the Murtala Muhammed International Airport at 4:30pm on Monday (19 August). The African Courier gathered that the returnees were picked randomly at different times and detained in a deportation prison prior to their repatriation. READ MORE New law for …

The Federal Parliament has passed two laws to regulate immigration from non-EU countries into Germany. One of the laws provides more opportunities for people to come to Germany to work and receive training while another amends the regulations affecting asylum-seekers. In a major step to modernise and liberalise its immigration system, the German parliament (Bundestag) passed into law a bill …

Germany’s Interior Ministry has proposed new measures to monitor and deport persons whose asylum application has been rejected.  The German Interior Ministry on Sunday (18 November) confirmed plans to facilitate and accelerate deportations of failed asylum-seekers along with those who should have their asylum requests processed in another EU country under the so-called Dublin rules. According to the European Union’s Dublin …

People from Germany’s list of “safe” countries rarely have the right to asylum. Keith Walker and Timothy Jones of Deutsche Welle look at what the list means for asylum-seekers in Germany. Germany’s constitution defines as “safe countries of origin” the ones “in which, on the basis of their laws, enforcement practices and general political conditions, it can be safely concluded …