deportations, Security packageBorder controls, Fast-track asylum procedure: New tightening of asylum laws and stricter rules for refugees are currently being presented almost daily. After the suspected Islamist knife attack in Solingen, the traffic light coalition seems to be driven to present quick solutions. But there is now unmistakable unrest at the Green Party base.
In an open letter to the party leadership, hundreds of members are now openly rebelling against the course of their own party leadership. “Instead of putting humanity and human rights at the forefront, Germany is increasingly relying on isolation, fences and even agreements with authoritarian regimes that trample on the dignity of those seeking protection,” says the letter, which was published on Tuesday and has already found more than 700 supporters within a few hours.
In it, the initiators criticize that after the Attack in Solingen the real problem, Islamism, is not being discussed. “The course taken, however, fights refugees and ultimately strengthens the Islamists,” the letter states.
The course taken, however, fights refugees and ultimately strengthens the Islamists.
From the Explanation the Green base
Specifically, the Green Party members condemn the deportation of 28 criminals to Afghanistan and the announcement that they will deport people to Syria again in the future. “The deportations are a breach of the dam that we condemn and do not support,” criticize the initiators, who are calling for an immediate stop to deportations to the two countries.
Prominent Greens also sign
“In addition, we call for a return to an asylum policy that focuses on protection and integration instead of isolation and criminalization,” says the letter, which is also supported by well-known Greens, such as Kreuzberg Bundestag member Canan Bayram and the long-standing parliamentary group leaders from Berlin and Thuringia, Antje Kapek and Astrid Rothe-Beinlich.
Together they are calling for a return to “integration instead of isolation” in the future. Cutting social benefits for people who are required to leave the country is unconstitutional and undermines the basic idea of humane treatment. The letter ends with an appeal to the party leadership: “We expect that the principles on which our party is based will be consistently defended in government work.”
We are currently experiencing a competition of inhumane shabbiness.
Green Party member Enad Altaweel calls for a change of course from the party leadership.
The authors of the letter are mainly members of the Green Youth and the Berlin Greens. One of them is Enad Altaweel, who has been with the Greens since 2017 and is a member of the Berlin state executive committee. In 2016, he himself fled from Syria to Germany and is now the spokesperson for diversity and anti-discrimination for the Berlin Greens.
© Kilian Vitt
“We are currently experiencing a competition of inhumane shabbyness. The Greens must under no circumstances support fast-track asylum procedures and rejections at the borders,” he said in an interview with the Tagesspiegel newspaper.
However, the reason for the letter was the deportation of 28 criminals to Afghanistan and the announcement of new deportations to Syria, explains Altaweel. “I did not become a member of this party so that we could hand people over to the Assad regime.”
He is pleased that her letter has already collected hundreds of signatures within a few hours. It shows that he is not alone in his position within the Greens. He hopes that the party leadership will be more courageous again and protect universal human rights. “It is fundamentally wrong to let the right wing influence us like that.”
