Refugees in West Germany

Press, 28 July 1986, Page 24

Refugees in West Germany

The patience of West Germany over refugees is clearly running out. About 150,000 people arrived in Europe last year seeking asylum as refugees. By far the largest number of them went to West Germany. In the last decade, about 370,000 refugees applied for asylum in West Germany, and about 85,000 were accepted. This amounted to 40 per cent of the 200,000 refugees who have found a permanent home in Western Europe during the 10 years. Besides those who have been granted asylum, in the middle of last year there were another 530,000, 150,000 of them from Third World countries, who were in West Germany without legal status. Some of them remain in camps. In West Germany, as in a number of other Western European countries, resentment is growing over the presence of the refugees.

One of the basic problems is in deciding who is a refugee. Many who come from Asia, particularly Sri Lanka and Pakistan, are in search of better rewards in life, and are not political refugees but economic refugees. The motivation is understandable; the problem is in deciding whether a particular person should qualify for asylum. The point is particularly important for West Germany because it is required, under its Constitution, to grant asylum to those who genuinely need it. However, the huge influx from the Third World countries is clearly straining West Germany’s resources. It is presenting the country not only with problems in housing and feeding them, but also in controlling crime and the possibility of terrorist actions. West Germany attracts many asylum-

seekers because this country is believed to provide good opportunities for work and prosperity. Entry is easier to West Germany because of the complicated relationship between East and West Germany. More than half the refugees appear to be travelling first to East Berlin and then being transmitted to West Berlin, where they become the responsibility of the Federal Republic of Germany. The entry to West Berlin is largely the responsibility of the three controlling powers of Britain, France, and the United States. The East German action of sending them to West Berlin is designed to cause trouble and embarrassment for the West German Government.

West Germany has become rigorous in its screening of people for asylum. It will grant asylum to those it considers genuine refugees who might be in danger of their lives for political reasons if they returned to their own countries, but will not grant asylum to those it judges to be migrants because they simply want to get the economic benefits of another country.

The problems facing West Germany face the whole of Western Europe. Even the hitherto tolerant Nordic countries are showing signs of becoming tired of accepting asylum-seekers. One of the tragedies of the situation is that the influx of those seeking asylum makes it more difficult to resettle the genuine refugees. This has profound implications, not only for the refugees themselves, but also for countries such as Thailand which still have huge numbers of people awaiting resettlement elsewhere.