Living in fear of deportation: reform of the right to stay could come too late for many refugees
Created: 06/14/2022, 22:24
By: Katrin Woitsch
Ali Arslan is a permanent member of the team in the confectionery in the Café Winklstüberl in Fischbachau.
But he is threatened with deportation.
His boss Sophia Mairhofer fights for him with a lawyer.
© Thomas Plettenberg
The federal government wants to create a right to stay for tolerated people who have been living here for more than five years.
Many refugees fear that they will be deported before the regulation takes effect.
One of them is Ali Arslan from Fischbachau.
Fischbachau – Ali Arslan is afraid.
He speaks fluent German, has an apartment, got his German driver's license and has a full-time job that he enjoys.
His boss would like to offer him an apprenticeship in the confectionery of the Café Winklstüberl in Fischbachau.
But she fears that he will no longer be in Germany when the training begins.
Because the 23-year-old from Pakistan is only tolerated.
Living in fear of deportation: Ali Arslan fears for his future in Miesbach
He has been living in Fischbachau for six years - always with the fear of deportation.
The district office in Miesbach has already asked him to have a passport issued by the Pakistani consulate.
His work permit could be revoked any day.
The reform of the right of residence announced by Nancy Faeser (SPD) could come too late for him.
The Federal Minister of the Interior wants to bring a right of residence to the cabinet before the summer break.
Refugees who have been living in Germany with a Duldung for more than five years should be given the opportunity to stay permanently and legally.
A good 100,000 people in Germany could benefit from this.
However, people who have been tolerated and who meet the new criteria for a right to stay are regularly deported.
That is why the aid organization Pro Asyl is calling for an anticipatory regulation: the federal states should instruct the immigration authorities not to deport anyone who would benefit from the planned new regulations.
Rhineland-Palatinate, Schleswig-Holstein, Bremen, Thuringia and Lower Saxony are already doing this.
That's not planned in Bavaria.
Interior Minister Joachim Herrmann had already criticized Faeser's move, fearing that this would make Germany more attractive to migrants.
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"I lost two trainees shortly before the start of my training because they were deported"
Pro Asyl recently started the "Right to Future" campaign to fight for an anticipatory regulation in all federal states.
A number of companies have already joined.
One of the first to sign was Munich baker Ludwig Neulinger.
"We have been employing people from around 25 nations for years," he says.
He says he's only had good experiences with them.
But not with the Bavarian asylum policy.
Many positions in the trades are vacant.
But politics tends to create hurdles.
Baker Ludwig Neulinger
"I lost two trainees shortly before the start of my training because they were deported.
It wasn't easy to find a replacement.” Neulinger emphasizes that many colleagues also have this problem.
“Many jobs in the trades are vacant.
We need motivated people who are hardworking and ambitious.
But politics tends to create hurdles for them.” Neulinger very much hopes that the change of lane announced by the new government will change something.
"Everyone benefits from that."
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Entrepreneur initiative fights for anticipatory regulation
Two years ago, a business initiative was founded in the Allgäu to influence Bavarian asylum policy.
In the meantime, more than 50 companies from southern Bavaria have joined.
"We collected signatures, wrote letters to the Ministry of the Interior, addressed the problem to state politicians," reports the coordinator Monika Hermann-Sanou.
"The answers were mostly empty words." Now the initiative is also fighting for an anticipatory regulation - and hopes for Faeser's reform.
Just like Sophia Mairhofer, who runs the pastry shop in Fischbachau with her mother, where Ali Arslan works.
"We hired a specialist lawyer to prevent Ali from being deported before the law comes in," says the 27-year-old.
Because they want to help him.
But also because they urgently need his help in the company.
Ali is afraid of being deported to Pakistan.
He had fled because his home had been bombed.
In Fischbachau he built a new life with a lot of ambition.
If he now tries to get his passport, his deportation will be easier.
If he doesn't, he will probably lose his work permit - and with it his apartment.
"It's just not fair," says Sophia Mairhofer.
She also hired four Ukrainians.
"There were no problems with the authorities," she says.
She thinks anyone who is hardworking and motivated should get a chance.
Completely independent of origin.
You can find more current news from the district of Miesbach and the Tegernsee region at Merkur.de/Miesbach.
