Plans for Asylum Seekers' Camp at the GU-ZAST Halberstadt
Drastic Worsening of Refugees' Living Conditions in Saxony-Anhalt
From mid-February, refugees in Saxony-Anhalt are to be accommodated at the GU-ZAST grounds near Halberstadt until their asylum proceedings are finished.
The ZAST Halberstadt is the central place for refugees who have just arrived in Saxony-Anhalt. The GU-ZAST (collective accommodation of the ZAST) is located at a former military barracks complex far outside Halberstadt and affords the refugees only a minimum supply.
Refugees may be accommodated here up to 6 weeks, in special circumstances maximum 3 months, before they are sent to the Landkreise (districts).
In future, asylum seekers are not to leave the complex near Halberstadt up to 15 months, as long as their asylum application is being considered. The reason which is given for this dramatic worsening of the situation of asylum seekers is the inefficient number of refugees at the GU-ZAST, while Saxony-Anhalt is bound by law to run a ZAST1).
Looking back - deportation camp at the GU-ZAST grounds and additional admittances:
In 2002, a so-called "zentrale Ausreiseeinrichtung" ("central departure institution")2) was set up at the grounds near Halberstadt, beside the GU-ZAST for refugees who had just arrived. At that time, the situation was similar: because of the decreasing number of asylum seekers, there was free capacity. Asylum seekers whose asylum application was "obviously unfounded" and who had "neglected their duty of cooperation" must live in this "central departure institution". Through "intensive looking after"3), the asylum seekers' readiness to a "voluntary departure"4) is to be increased.
The Refugees' Council Saxony-Anhalt stated in a press information on 1st June of 2005, the "departure institution" had "brought nothing but human suffering"5).
In July 2005 it came out that for the Landesverwaltungsamt it had been "clear for a long time that because of the costs, the institution (the GU-ZAST) must be reduced in size, and staff must be cut back"6).
From the 28th of December 2005, asylum seekers were sent to the GU-ZAST from the asylum home in Schönebeck, which was closed down. When the asylum seekers accommodated in Thale learned that their home, too, was to be closed down, as well as the home in Elend / Wernigerode, and that the people who lived in these homes should live in the GU-ZAST Halberstadt instead, they went on hunger strike. This hunger strike gives us an idea of what an accommodation in the GU-ZAST means to asylum seekers.
Meanwhile, the number of vacancies there had temporarily decreased for another reason: After a disastrous fire in the shelter for the homeless in Halberstadt on 2nd of December 2005, in which nine homeless people died, the two upper floors of the three buildings in the GU-ZAST where closed down. (Before, there were four floors inhabited in each building.) So now the GU-ZAST has not 1200 places, according to the ratio of formula of the interior ministry, but 600 places.
Current situation - Central camp is taking shape
Meanwhile, refugees from Elend, among them unaccompanied mothers with small children, have been sent to the GU-ZAST Halberstadt, which was originally established only for the short-term accommodation of newly arrived refugees. In block A, which is the deportation camp, the upper floors have been reconstructed. Block B is becoming unnecessary as an accommodation. When the reconstruction is finished, there shall be 800 places for asylum seekers in block A and C together - 200 places more than now. It is estimated that about 50 refugees will come to Saxony-Anhalt per month7) and that the GU-ZAST has enough space to keep all asylum seekers there for 15 months. In the current discussions, the interior ministry seems to be ready to discuss only such items as for example, if families with children should be kept in the central camp for a shorter term.
Prospects
The number of asylum seekers continues to drop8), therefore soon there will be vacancies again in the GU-ZAST Halberstadt. The interior ministry will plan again a further worsening of the living conditions of asylum seekers in Saxony-Anhalt, if there is no shift in thinking!
If the interior ministry wants a human solution for the expensive GU-ZAST, it must be reduced back to an accommodation only for newly arrived refugees. And it would be still better to generally question the accommodation of asylum seekers in collective homes. It would be possible to let them live in flats instead, especially if we take into consideration that many collective accommodations in Saxony-Anhalt are not filled to capacity, and at the same time it would be a suitable measure against racism and for integration. Then the asylum seekers in Elend, Thale, Schönebeck and Hohenthurm would not have been forced to move to collective homes at other places, after their homes were closed down, and would not have lost their social contacts, which they had established with so much difficulty and effort at their former place of living.
The Bundesland Saxony-Anhalt could say good-bye to the concept of accommodating asylum seekers in isolated, partly empty, and expensive collective homes.
That would be a policy for integration and against racism and would put an end to the stigmatizing exclusion of people from the society of Saxony-Anhalt.
A right to stay for victims of racist violence would additionally be a clear sign against racist violence and would show that the extreme right won't reach their racist objectives.
This was all we know about the planned accommodation of asylum seekers at the grounds of the GU-ZAST. We do not know more details because the bill for the respective decree is not available to the public.
Kind regards
no lager halle
Footnotes:
1) § 44-47 AsylVfg: Eine Aufnahmeeinrichtung ist einzurichten. In dieser sind Asylbewerber nicht länger als 6 Wochen,
höchstens 3 Monate unterzubringen. Die Aufnahmeeinrichtung soll ausreichend Plätze zur Verfügung stellen,
entsprechend ihrer Aufnahmequote. Die Anzahl der zugewiesenen Asylbewerber wird monatlich mitgeteilt.
Translation: A ZAST must be established. In it, asylum seekers are to be accommodated no longer than 6 weeks, maximum 3 months. The ZAST must provide sufficient places, according to its quota of assignment. The number of the assigned asylum seekers is reported monthly. - So the accommodation in a GU-ZAST is limited by law to 6 weeks, maximum 3 months in special circumstances!
- summarizing: http://www.aufenthaltstitel.de/asylvfg.html#abschnitt3
2) It was called "Ausreise-Einrichtung in der GU-ZAST" ("departure institution in the GU-ZAST") in the decrees of the interior ministry, "zentrale Ausreiseeinrichtung" ("central departure institution") in the discussions. Flüchtlingsräte (Refugees' councils) and anti-racist groups call it "Abschiebelager" ("deportation camp").
3) The three phrasings - in German: "offensichtlich unbegründet", "Mitwirkungspflicht verletzt", "intensive Betreuung" - were used in the decrees of the interior ministry.
Neues Deutschland 31.07.2004: John Williams died despite "intensive looking after"
4) used in the decrees of the interior ministry; Unwort of the year 2006, http://www.unwortdesjahres.org
5) Press information of the Refugees' Council Saxony-Anhalt Außer menschliches Leid nichts gebracht - Flüchtlingsrat
weiterhin für die Schließung der Ausreiseeinrichtung 1. Juni 2005
6) Article in the Mitteldeutsche Zeitung, 21.07.2005 Land will stärker bei Flüchtlingen sparen
7) Sachsen-Anhalt nimmt wie im Vorjahr knapp 3,1 Prozent der nach Deutschland eingereisten Asylbewerber auf
- Translation: Saxony-Anhalt receives just under 3.1 per cent of the asylum seekers coming to Germany. Press information No.: 281/07, 10th October 2007, interior ministry
8) Nach der jetzt vorliegenden Halbjahresstatistik kamen 274 Asylbewerber nach Sachsen-Anhalt im Vergleich zu 377
Bewerbern im ersten Halbjahr 2006 ibid. - Translation: According to the now available half-year statistic, 274 asylum seekers came to Saxony-Anhalt, compared to 377 asylum seekers in the first half year of 2006