„We are Germans without papers!“

Children of refugees who have lived in Germany for many years with only temporary residence permits hand in today to the coordinator of the conference of ministers of the interior in Nuremberg an appeal of the Society for Threatened Peoples (GfbV) that the approximately 190,000 persons in this category be granted the right to stay in the country.

The children between 7 and 15 years old will be waving German flags, just as they did for their German football team during the World Cup.

The appeal signed by the GfbV patron, Martin Walser, and the GfbV General Secretary, Tilman Zülch, and jointly formulated by the German Jewish philosopher Prof. Ernst Tugendhat will remind the ministers of the interior of the fact that the children, who were born here or who grew up here, of these refugees speak German as their mother tongue with a Lower Saxon, Bavarian or other accent and are de facto ethnically and culturally Germans. To send them and their families „back“ would be a grave injustice, for they have no links to the home countries of their parents. Most of them originate from countries which after civil wars, genocide, flight or deportation cannot in any way be considered as a homeland for many members of minorities.

We invite you cordially to our human rights campaign

Thursday, 16th November 2006,

From 2 p.m. onwards (handing over of the appeal at 2.30)

Ansbacher Strasse, corner of Rednitzstrasse

at the Schloss Faber-Kastell (Stein)

in Nuremberg

READ THE APPEAL  |>