A new court ruling in Baden-Württemberg could transform access to vocational training for thousands of refugees across Germany, especially in the elderly care sector where skilled workers are urgently needed. The Higher Administrative Court (Verwaltungsgerichtshof, VGH) in Mannheim has decided that refugees with a Duldung (tolerated stay) do not need a work permit to begin training in elderly care, even …

By Max Cuvellier Giacomelli, Head of Mobile for Development, GSMA, and Sarah Malm, Executive Director, GOGLA (the Global Off-Grid Solar Association) _________ For millions of Africans, a charged mobile phone is a gateway to markets, finance, healthcare, and education. Yet hundreds of millions of people still lack electricity, locking them out of the digital economy before they can even log …

In a landmark decision published on published on 20 November, Germany’s Federal Constitutional Court (Bundesverfassungsgericht, BVerfG) declared that police may not enter a refugee’s room in a communal shelter to carry out a deportation without first obtaining a judicial search warrant. The court, based in Karlsruhe, ruled that such an enforcement measure constitutes a search (“Durchsuchung”) under the German Basic …