EKD Press Releases
Living in Security is a Human Right
EKD bishop for ecumenical relations and ministries abroad advocates resettlement program for refugees.
December 9, 2011
The interior ministers' conference in Wiesbaden and Human Rights Day on December10 provided the bishop for ecumenical relations and ministries abroad of the Evangelical Church in Germany (EKD) Martin Schindehütte an opportunity to speak about the planned introduction of a resettlement program for refugees. "Living in security is a basic human right. Precisely those in greatest need of protection, that is, those who have no other escape, need our genuine solidarity," Schindehütte said in Hanover.
Germany's intention to take in a contingent of 300 refugees each year over the next three years was a step in the right direction, he added. "We the Protestant church applaud this decision on the part of the ministers of the interior," Schindehütte further stated. The numbers are by no means sufficient, yet the decision of the federal government jointly with the German länder creates the possibility in acute emergency situations of taking in an even greater number of persons. Bishop Schindehütte expressed the hope that in the coming years there would be reflection on how "the contingent can be considerably expanded."
The resettlement program would provide protection for refugees in extremely distressful situations who have no prospects of a return to their homelands. All over the world, refugees, are living in precarious emergency circumstances, sometimes over many years, in reception centers, for example, without the possibility of returning to their homes or of becoming integrated locally. Since the violent crackdown by the Assad regime against its own population, the situation of Iraqi refugees in Syria has considerably worsened. In Libya, too, where the United Nations refugee agency has registered numerous refugees from Somalia, Eritrea and Sudan, the security situation has become difficult and living conditions steadily worse. "These people must be helped in a non-bureaucratic manner in order to alleviate their distress and to ease the local situation," Schindehütte said.
Recently the EKD Synod at its Magdeburg session also adopted a resolution pressing the federal government to set up a long-term resettlement program. The EKD and its member churches were just as responsible for the integration of these refugees as church-related diaconal agencies, Schindehütte indicated.
Hanover, December 9, 2011#Press Office of the EKD#
Reinhard Mawick
Note: Resettlement programs allow countries, on the basis of a formal system of cooperation with UNHCR, to take in each year, for a long-term period, a specified number of especially vulnerable refugees who originally had fled from their homelands to another country outside of Europe that however cannot offer them either protection from persecution or long-term perspectives. Some European countries such as Sweden and the United Kingdom had introduced such programs many years ago.