Article74 Magazine

 
Appeal against the Expulsion of Palestinian Refugees from Germany to Lebanon  

Informationsprojekt Naher und Mittlerer Osten/Berlin 
Alternative Information Center/Bethlehem 

Several thousand Palestinian, Lebanese and Kurdish refugees from Lebanon are currently threatened with expulsion or deportation from Germany. These people came to Germany years ago, to seek refuge from the civil war and postwar conditions in Lebanon. Most of them were Palestinians fleeing the sieges and attacks on their camps during the civil war. In Germany, they were refused political asylum. However, they were granted a lowest-level resident status, because the Lebanese authorities until recently refused to issue any travel documents enabling the refugees to return to Lebanon. 

The German government is currently in negotiating a re-admission agreement with the Lebanese government. German authorities submitted lists with about 10,000 names of refugees to the Lebanese General Security. Since December 1996, hundreds of Lebanese refugees have already been sent back to Lebanon. The authorities in Berlin, where nearly half of these refugees live, have sent letters to several Palestinian families informing them that their “provisional residency” is to be extended for the last time, because “a re-admission agreement with the Lebanese government will be signed at the end of June 1997.” 

Lebanon still suffers from the legacy of a 15-years civil war, as well as from the occupation and the warlike situation in the south of the country. The situation of Palestinian refugees in Lebanon is worsening rapidly, especially since the end of the civil war. They have been consistently denied social and civil rights. According to the UN Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) the rate of unemployment is higher than 50%; approximately 60% of the Palestinians live below the poverty line. Palestinians are banned from as many as 71 professions, and they have no access to social insurance. The services of UNRWA and other international agencies have been reduced considerably in recent years. Refugee camps, which were destroyed during the civil war, were not rebuilt. The Lebanese government pursues an undeclared policy of migration pressure against the Palestinians. In 1995, after the expulsion of thousands of Palestinians from Libya, the Lebanese Minister for Tourism, Nicolas Fattoush, stated that Lebanon should not become a “dumping ground for human waste.” 

Today, Palestinian refugees are unwanted in Palestine/Israel (the latter refuses their return absolutely) as well as in most Arab countries. A growing number of Palestinian refugees are being denied entry and residence everywhere. To a certain extent, their situation resembles the desperate situation of stateless people in Europe between the World Wars. So far, their right to return - as enshrined in UN GA Resolution 194 (III) - has been denied. 
Despite the denial of work permits and safe status of residence, these Palestinian refugees, and other refugees, not only established themselves in Germany; they have build their own diaspora communities. Their children are being educated in German schools and speak the language of this country. Now the authorities want to uproot these people another time and expel them to Lebanon, where they will be confronted with a hostile environment. 

- We appeal to the Lebanese government not to allow itself to be utilized for such an  inhumane practice, but instead to grant civil and social rights to the Palestinians in  Lebanon; 
- We call on the German Government not to sign any kind of re-admission agreement  with the Lebanese government, and we call for the abrogation of all agreements  made to that purpose; 
- We call on the German government to grant secure residence to the Palestinian,  Lebanese and other refugees from Lebanon living in Germany; 
- We call on the German government to fulfill its responsibility towards the  Palestinian refugees by supporting the continuation of UNRWA and its services for  Palestinian refugees, by increasing its contributions to the regular budget of  UNRWA and by supporting UN GA Resolution 194 as terms of reference for the  solution of the Palestine refugee problem and for a just and lasting peace and the  Middle East. 

This appeal has been released on August 15, 1997 as a joint appeal of six German human rights organizations and refugee rights organizations. 

Please send your letter/appeal to: 

Minister of Foreign Affairs 
Dr. Klaus Kinkel 
Adenauerallee 99-103 
53113 Bonn 
Fax: 49-228-17 34 02 

Minister of Interior  
Manfred Kanther 
Graurheindorfer Str. 198 
53117 Bonn 
Fax: 49-228-681 46 65 

Berlin State Minister of Interior 
Innensenator Joerg Schoenbohm 
Fehrbelliner Platz 2 
10707 Berlin 
Fax: 49-30-867 41 47 

Federal Parliament (Bundestag) 
Foreign Affairs Committee 
Subcommittee on Human Rights and Humanitarian Aid 
Bundeshaus, 
53113 Bonn 

Please send a copy of your letter to: 
INAMO - Informationsprojekt Naher und Mittlerer Osten e.V., Berlin 
Dahlmannstr. 31, 10629 Berlin, fax. 49-30-862 38 49; 
email: [email protected] 
BADIL Resource Center for Palestinian Residency & Refugee Rights 
PO Box 728 Bethlehem; fax: 00972-2-2747346 
email: [email protected]

 
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