Bonn to clamp down on influx of refugees

Press, 6 September 1980, Page 22

Bonn to clamp down on influx of refugees

By

SUZANNE SCHAEFFER.

of the Associated Press Bonn Thousands of refugees from Third World povertyhave flooded West Germany in recent years, straining budgets, sociai services, and tempers. The influx has presented cruel dilemmas to a nation painfully aware of its past. West Germany’s postwar Constitution, drafted in part by German politicians who had fled Nazi oppression, guarantees all political refugees the right of asylum. Thousands of Czechs, Hungarians, Russians, and others fleeing political oppression have taken advantage of the liberal asylum law to settle in West Germany. But since the mid-1970s thousands of Turks, Pakistanis, Eritreans and other, have arrived seeking jobs and a higher living standard. Many arrive at the frontiers or at Frankfurt’s International Airport without funds, job skills, or knowledge of ■ the language. Many are herded from one Government-run transit camp to another. “Disgrace,” shrieked one newspaper headline. “It’s inhuman how these for-

eigners are pushed around,” said another. Since 1973 the stream of 1 asylum-seekers has risen from 5289 to an expected .150,000 in 1980. More than 70 per cent of tire applicants in recent years were from Turkey. According to a Government spokesman, Mr Armin Gruenewald, "Only 8 to 9 per cent of the applicants actually have political grounds for fleeing their country.” The Government has proposed drastic cuts in welfare benefits automatically granted to asylumseekers. It now requires visas for visitors from Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Afghanistan, India and Ethiopia. Turks may soon, have to obtain visas too. "We do not have any intention of cutting back on the right to apply for asylum, we just want to make sure that it is not abused,” Mr Gruenewald said.

Officials realize West Germany’s economic boom days are heading towards a slump and unemployment is rising. Suddenly 4.1 million foreign workers in the country appear to be enough.

There are no accurate figures on how many nonGermans are among the'62 million people of West Germany, because each township keeps its own list. Since the war, most

asylum-seekers have been ethnic Germans from East Germany, Poland, Rumania or the Soviet Union.

They assimilated well when West Germany was a blossoming industrial power. Social benefits such as work permits, child support payments and monej' for clothing, food and housing were easily granted. Applicants from Communist nations, many. of whom were educated and speak German, usually had little trouble seeking asylum.

But since some asylum cases can stagnate in courts for up to seven years, Third World applicants found the interim financially productive in comparison with their po-verty-ridden homelands. West German officials say. Until recently an applicant received permits to work, about $l6O to $lBO a month in aid, about $2O a day for hotel fees and in some cases money for children, clothing, or food while the application was pending. If the request was re--fused, the applicant simply returned home without having to refund any money. Officials in Frankfurt complained that asylum cases cost the city $6 million this year. In West Berlin the figure surpassed $lO million.

The matter came to 3 head last month when the Mayor of Frankfurt (Mr Walter Wallman) refused to' accept 184 Eritreans and Afghans who arrived at nearby Rhine-Main International Airport. He sent them by train to a national processing camp in Bavaria where they lived in tents in cold, wet weather before being accepted. Embarrassed public officials have scurried to make peace and weave compromises between the overburdened cities, where most of the asylum-seek-ers have congregated, and the state government, which the national Government contends has responsibility in tlie matter. The Bundestag (Federal Parliament) had passed measures by which work permits would not be granted for the first year, nor would child support payments be paid, officials said. Applicants would still receive money for food and housing. More transit camps will be built near Frankfurt and . Wiesbaden to house persons waiting for their applications to be processed.

Processing would be speeded up and requirements for proving political repression would be sharpened with the goal of settling claims within a year, officials said.