Palestinian Refugees in Germany
by Karima Abdel Aziz*
Roughly five million registered
Palestine refugees live in the five areas receiving UNRWA
operational services, namely the Gaza Strip, the West Bank,
Lebanon, Jordan and Syria. There are over two million more
Palestinian refugees that are unregistered, the majority of which
are also in UNRWA’s areas of operation. Recent events in Syria have
caused several thousands of Palestinian refugees[2] to flee for the
second or third time and seek asylum elsewhere. According to
current UNRWA figures, approximately 526,744 Palestine refugees are
registered as residing in Syria. From those, “up to 280,000 are
currently displaced inside Syria, with a further 110,000 displaced
to neighboring countries, including Lebanon, Jordan, Turkey, Egypt
and increasingly, to Europe.”[3]
In 2015, 44 percent of the asylum applications in Europe made by
persons fleeing Syria were filed in Germany.[4] Although the exact number
of Palestinian refugees from Syria that fled to Germany is unknown,
the percentage above indicates that it is a significant proportion
of the total.
In March 2016, the German leftist party Die Linke published an
official inquiry directed at the German Parliament regarding “The
Situation of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for
Palestine Refugees in the Far East and Palestinian Refugees fleeing
Syria.”[5] The official response, published by the German
Parliament in April 2016, states that the Syrian Arab Republic
issues Palestinian nationals a travel document, which, regarding
entry to Germany, is essentially treated as a Syrian passport. It
is further stated that a visa is necessary to enter the country.
Palestinian refugees from Syria who wish to acquire a visa for
Germany via the German Embassy in Beirut are assisted by the
embassy by way of pre-confirmation of appointments conducted by the
Lebanese authorities with the individuals concerned. Palestinian
refugees without valid travel documents may be given a travel
document for foreigners, facilitating the travel into German
territory if the prerequisites regarding the required residence
permit are met.
Regarding Article 1D of the 1951 Convention, the applicability has
to be determined individually. If a UN agency other than the UNHCR
has ceased its operations or is not capable of offering its support
and assistance to the individual in question, the inclusionary
clause of Article 1D applies. Thus, this should apply to all
Palestinian refugees from Syria. Statistically, however, there is
no confirmed data on the protection provided by the German
government to Palestinian refugees from Syria, because only those
Palestinians with Syrian citizenship are included in
statistics.[6] Figure 1 (below) displays absolute numbers and
percentages of how many Palestinian refugees from Syria applied for
asylum in each of the German federal states between 2012 and 2016
and how many cases were granted. Overall, it shows that there have
been 698 recorded cases of Palestinian refugees seeking asylum in
Germany between 2012 and 2016, of which 96.54 percent were
approved. Actual numbers could deviate because, as mentioned
previously, Palestinian refugees without Syrian citizenship are not
recorded in the statistics.
There are numerous inconsistencies with the registration of
Palestinian refugees from Syria in Germany; since it appears most
local migration officials are unaware of the legal rights of
Palestinian refugees in Europe. The following information, compiled
from two articles, demonstrates the effect this has on the
individuals concerned. As already established, Palestinian refugees
fleeing to Germany should be granted asylum immediately. However,
various studies suggest that the asylum-seeking process in Germany
is not as straightforward for Palestinian refugees as it should be.
Sophia Akram’s article sheds light on the disquieting fact that
Europe’s bureaucratic discrepancies when it comes to Palestinian
refugees have “caused various complications while going through
European countries,” for instance leaving Syria’s Palestinian
refugees “stranded along the Western Balkan route because
instructions to officials were to only receive Syrians, Iraqis and
Afghans.”[7] Palestinians are alternately “simply checked off
as Syrians for administrative ease,” which does not alleviate
complications once in Germany; there have been numerous reports
about delays in establishing citizenship due to ignorance towards
the legal status of Syrian-born Palestinian refugees.[8]
The second article mentions that rather than following
international law, these practices for “administrative ease” have
been institutionalized: “A spokesperson for the German Federal
Office for Migration and Refugees (Bundesamt für Migration und
Flüchtlinge) told Al Jazeera in an email that Syrian-born
Palestinians are regarded the same as Syrian nationals under German
refugee law.” However, sometimes their cases are even more
irregular than those of Syrian nationals. Interviews with
Palestinian refugees from Syria who are now experiencing these
inconsistencies in adherence with the UNHCR Revised Note on the
Applicability of Article 1D substantiate this claim: Rami Al
al-Hasan had already been in Germany for a year and was still
waiting for his interview as part of his application process when
the article was published in March 2016. He states that German
officials “do not understand that I was born in Syria but I do not
have a Syrian passport. It is very unusual for them,” and further
that “they do not get the meaning of Palestinian Syrian. Some local
migration offices register Syrian-born Palestinians as Syrians, and
others just have to wait until their citizenship status can be
determined.” The article explains further:
Syrian Palestinians, who do not have Syrian citizenship, are treated in the same manner as refugees from Syria who have Syrian citizenship under the asylum procedure in Germany,’ the spokesperson said. ‘For all refugees from Syria, there is the so-called individual assessment with consultation, in which [asylum applicants] describe their personal reasons for leaving.’ While the migration office is responsible for selecting asylum applications, the bureau is divided into local offices in municipalities throughout the country. According to the migration office, the national law is supposed to be applied the same way in every office.[9]
This contradicts
paragraph 9(b) of UNHCR’s Revised Note on the Applicability of
Article 1D of the 1951 Convention relating to the Status of
Refugees to Palestinian Refugees. The article then introduces
another case of contradictory practices in refugee law: that of
Rami Haki, 37, currently residing in Gunzburg, Germany with his
wife and four children. While his wife Hanaa is Syrian, Haki and
his children are considered Syrian-born Palestinians. The family
applied for asylum together. However, Haki’s case was separated
from that of his wife and children, “whose case, as dependent
children of a Syrian national, was processed and approved quickly.”
When the family received an answer to their application, Haki’s
name was missing entirely from the documents. According to Haki’s
own words "I was told that we have two [separate] files because I
am Palestinian and my wife is Syrian. But for me, this is not
normal; I am Palestinian from Syria. I come from Syria, so I am the
same as my wife.” Therefore, not only are Palestinians and Syrians
treated differently in the asylum process, Palestinians are
disadvantaged despite theoretically being entitled by international
law to a quicker process. According to Mohamad Jabeti, a
22-year-old Palestinian refugee from Syria living in Mannheim,
"Syrians don't have problems with asylum, but with Palestinians,
[the German government] makes it very hard… I feel like a
second-class person.”[10]
Furthermore, it is getting increasingly hard for Palestinian
refugees from Syria to apply for family reunification if one member
has already reached Germany while another remains in a third
country. While the law on family reunification in Lower
Saxony,[11] for instance, is already restrictive for
Syrian nationals, Palestinian refugees from Syria are exempt from
the program entirely.[12]
In conclusion, although officially commanding that international
law, as well as the 1951 Refugee Convention and UNHCR’s Revised
Note on the Applicability of Article 1D are followed, the state of
Germany shows clear discrepancies in its dealings with Palestinian
refugees from Syria. While the laws of the 1951 Convention
officially apply in Germany, inconsistencies may largely be
attributed to the ignorance of individual officials at the Federal
Office for Migration and Refugees responsible for processing asylum
cases. Great entertainment for Palestinian refugees could be found
at: http://www.pokiesonline.me/
online pokies site. Australia is waiting for you! This often
results in Palestinians simply being registered as Syrians for
“administrative ease” or their cases being delayed due to
confusion. Thus, Palestinian refugees are often discriminated
against in comparison to Syrian refugees. This discrimination stems
from the complete disregard of the 1951 Refugee Convention and
UNHCR’s revised note, which provides for ‘ipso facto’ recognition
of Palestinian refugees from Syria as refugees in
Germany.
Figure 1: Breakdown of the number of granted asylum cases of Palestinian refugees from Syria in each of the Federal states of Germany from 2012 to 2016 | ||
Translations:Syrische Staatsangehörige mit Volkszugehörigkeit
Palästinenser: Syrian citizens with Palestinian
nationality
Aufschlüsselung nach Bundesländern: Breakdown according to federal states Bundesgebiet gesamt: Entire federal territory of Germany Gesamtschutzquote: Overall protection rate Absoluter Wert: Absolute numbers |
|
|
Photo: Relief for refugees in a gym in Hanau, Germany. December 2013 (Source: Reuters) | ||
German Chancellor Angela Merkel comforts sobbing Palestinian girl after explaining that Germany can’t take limitless refugees. July 2015 (Source: infostormer.com) |
*Karima Abdel Aziz is a human rights activist that spent the last one and a half years working and volunteering with refugees from Syria in Germany and Greece.