As of: December 20, 2023 3:30 p.m
In connection with a planned deportation, there was a major police operation in a church community in Schwerin on Wednesday morning. According to police, two men tried to avoid deportation. The Refugee Council sharply criticized the police’s actions.
While trying to pick up two men for a planned deportation, the police encountered resistance on Wednesday morning in the Mueßer Holz district of Schwerin. According to a police spokeswoman, two 18 and 22 year old men were to be deported. However, the situation developed differently than planned because a woman tried to prevent this, said the spokeswoman. She was in an exceptional psychological state. A male person was found by police officers on the premises with cuts. Both were handed over to the emergency services and received medical treatment. According to the police, criminal proceedings were initiated against the woman for threats and coercion.
Deportation was initially suspended
The police had initially said that the two men came from Iraq, but have since corrected their information. According to the Northern Church and refugee aid, it was a family of six from Afghanistan, including minor children, from which the two adult sons were to be deported to Spain. According to information from the Refugee Council, the deportation was initially suspended during the police operation. The police have now confirmed that the two men were not initially deported. The immigration authorities in Kiel must now decide on how to proceed. At that time, the family was in the church asylum of the Protestant St. Peter’s Community in a small street on the edge of a prefabricated housing area.
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Police operation with battering ram and chainsaw
The police had asked residents to avoid the area and initially spoke of a dangerous situation. Several patrol car crews, special forces and ambulances were on site. Officials initially went to the church building with a battering ram and a chainsaw because there were indications that the men had barricaded themselves. At the same time, a negotiating team was deployed that conducted discussions and, according to the police spokeswoman, was initially able to have a de-escalating effect. The police only entered the apartment when they heard a “clinking noise” coming from the premises, said the police spokeswoman. During the subsequent search, knives were found hidden on the bodies of the mother, 22-year-old son and 13-year-old daughter. According to previous findings, the 22-year-old son injured himself in the apartment before the police arrived, according to the police. According to the police, the special forces were deployed with “simple physical force” and no aids or weapons were used.
Mother massively threatened as an Afghan women’s rights activist and journalist
It is now clear that the woman who tried to prevent the deportation was the 47-year-old mother of the two men and a well-known women’s rights activist and journalist in Afghanistan who was massively threatened in her homeland. According to the Northern Church, the family of six had been assured of admission to Germany through the admission program for Afghanistan run by the Federal Ministry of the Interior and the Foreign Office. However, the issuing of the visa was delayed. Since, according to the information, the family’s life in Afghanistan was increasingly at risk and their health had also deteriorated, the family fled to Iran and from there reached Europe with a Spanish visa.
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Seemann-Katz: “Frightening signal to those seeking protection”
According to Ulrike Seemann-Katz from the Refugee Council in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, the family’s two adult sons should be deported separately to Spain from Schleswig-Holstein following a request for administrative assistance. Accordingly, this is a case of the Dublin Convention, according to which asylum seekers must submit an application for asylum in the EU country into which they have entered. “I’m at a loss for words,” said Seemann-Katz on NDR MV Live and described the police’s actions as “brutal”. In her opinion, it is the first time that the church asylum in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania has been broken by the police and this “red line has been crossed.” This has an impact on all parishes in MV and is a “frightening signal to all those seeking protection” and “church parishes that offer refuge”. Seemann-Katz criticized that refugees should not feel safe in Germany even at Christmas.
“Shameful and incompatible with human rights principles”
The bishop in the district of Schleswig and Holstein, Nora Steen, emphasized that a threatening and escalating situation like that on Wednesday morning in Schwerin had “massively retraumatized” the family and was unacceptable. “I ask all responsible authorities to respect the safe space of church asylum.” The Northern Church’s refugee representative, Dietlind Jochims, said: “Here the protective space of a severely traumatized family who was threatened with death in their homeland was violated.” The church asylum had been granted since last Friday and, in accordance with common practice, all relevant authorities had been informed.
What is church asylum?
Churches can accommodate refugees in their premises for a limited period of time who are at risk of violation of their human rights or even death in the event of deportation. During this period, those affected can seek legal advice and have the case reviewed again. Church asylum is a traditionally silent agreement between church and state. Since the early Middle Ages, refugees were able to find protection in church buildings – until the 16th century. However, as the church lost power, church asylum became increasingly restricted. Only since the 1980s has a new church asylum emerged in Germany for people who are to be deported. However, church asylum is not legally established. According to the Federal Working Group on Asylum in the Church, 643 people nationwide were in church asylum at the beginning of December.
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NDR 1 Radio MV | News from Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania | 12/20/2023 | 4:00 p.m