Church speaks for `illegals' in Germany

["Ulhas Joglekar" <ulhasj@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

1 February 2000

Church speaks for `illegals' in Germany
BERLIN: Joe has been living in Germany for nine years, although he does not
in fact exist formally. The Liberian is an ``illegal'', one among an
estimated 500,000 people who have quietly and without valid papers found a
home in the country.
He was on the official files for nine months -- his application for
political asylum turned down, he spent this long in detention awaiting
deportation until he was released, for the reason that there were no flights
back to his war-ravaged country.
He is currently surviving by working illegally in one of the German
capital's innumerable bars, although, he says, he would much rather pay
taxes and be a legal member of society. ``I am a nobody,'' Joe says.
In Berlin alone there are an estimated 100,000 people living without valid
documents. Lying as it does close to the country's eastern border, Berlin is
capital city of the illegals, most of them refugees from eastern Europe or
South America, or those who have had their applications for asylum turned
down.
Bettina Hartmann, author of a study by the Catholic Church into these
people, has coined a new term to describe their existence --``postmodern
outlaws''. Her study reveals the views of people like Joe as well as those
of judges, police officers, doctors and lawyers.
``Fear, defencelessness and arbitrary treatment,'' characterise the daily
lives of those without documents, according to Sister Cornelia Buehrle, a
feisty nun tasked by the Church with migration issues.
Refusing people like Joe the right to medical care --he once went to
hospital using the magnetic strip card of a friend when his appendix
appeared set to burst --is a violation of human rights, she believes. She
also regards as having dangerous consequences the fact that the children of
illegals living in Germany are not allowed to attend school. ``At the moment
this depends on the discretionary judgement of the school head,'' she says.
There are no ready solutions to the problem of illegal immigration, Buehrle
says, citing this as a reason why politicians tend to avoid the problem. She
calls for a dialogue between the politicians, the police, the civil service
and experts. ``Solutions must be found,'' she insists.
The study also shows how illegals have become part of the system in certain
niches of the labour market. Father Augustyn Lewandowski, a priest working
among people of German nationality who have immigrated from eastern Europe,
spent several weeks as an illegal working on a building site. The workers
receive a third or a quarter of the pay they were promised, he says, telling
of Russian workers who pay some of their wages to the mafia, who in turn
ensure that the full amount is paid out.
Many do the work in order to maintain families in their home countries, Fr
Lewandowski says. ``In reality it is the employer who is cashing in,'' says
Stephan Felisiak, a member of a special task group of the Central Berlin
labour office.
Instead of them it is the workers who are caught. They are to be found not
only on building sites, but also in restaurants and hotels, as cleaners and
as babysitters, according to Buehrle. ``Ask yourself why a pizza costs only
six marks, and then look behind the scenes to discover who is washing the
plates.'''(DPA)
For reprint rights: Times Syndication Service
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