An investigation by the German outlet Apollo News revealed the existence of an online platform funded by the German government and the European Union, one of the aims of which is to provide practical and legal advice to migrants so that they can oppose their possible deportation, in the name of a “right to remain for all” on German soil.
The site, called Handbook Germany, takes the form of an information site aimed at immigrants arriving on German soil, with an apparently harmless programme: ‘orientieren—informieren—austauschen’ (find your way around, get informed, exchange information).
But on closer inspection, the site turns out to be a weapon in the service of a militant and openly declared political programme: “against deportations and for the right to freedom of movement for all.”
The Apollo News investigation shows that the site provides a whole range of practical advice for asylum seekers to enable them to avoid imminent deportation, giving them information on the conditions that prevent a deportation from being carried out—for example by playing on the ‘disappearance’ of a child, since a family with a missing child cannot be deported.
If an asylum application is rejected, the Handbook Germany site encourages legal recourse: take legal action against the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees or lodge a complaint, bearing in mind that “the costs may be covered by the State.” Refugee applicants are even provided with contacts for sympathetic advice centres and lawyers.
But there’s more. In the event that the application for deportation is approved, the site goes so far as to promote physical resistance, advising rejected applicants to defend themselves on the plane “by not sitting on the plane and making it clear that they are not taking the plane of their own free will.” Handbook Germany also recommends, in this case, active resistance by passengers in support of the migrants and suggests, with a link to the website of the ‘Abschiebungen stoppen. Bleiberecht für alle’ initiative, to which Handbook Germany makes reference. Flyers can be downloaded that have been specially designed for this kind of situation. Nothing less than a complete agitprop kit for the public.
The existence of such a site is hardly surprising: in Germany, as elsewhere, there are many pro-immigration associations and lobbies seeking to circumvent the law and obtain the right for migrants to remain on the soil of the host country at any price, even in violation of the law. The shocking nature of the Handbook Germany site stems from the support it receives from numerous German public institutions. The impressum page shows a panel of prestigious institutions supporting the editorial team (of which there are only two German-sounding names in the fifteen or so members): the European Union, the Federal Ministry of the Interior, the Federal Office for Migration, Refugees and Integration, all at the instigation of the Federal Parliament.
In the run-up to the forthcoming state elections, the federal German government is seeking to convince voters of its renewed firmness on migration policy. There is clearly an urgent need for better control of the agencies that deal with asylum and migration and receive public funding to do so.