Path: bloom-picayune.mit.edu!snorkelwacker.mit.edu!americast.com!americast.com!americast-post Newsgroups: americast.twt.news From: americast-post@AmeriCast.Com Organization: American Cybercasting Approved: americast-post@AmeriCast.com Subject: Germany's Kohl moves to lock out asylum seekers Date: Mon, 2 Nov 92 15:45:13 EST Message-ID: \SE A \SS (WS) \HD Germany's Kohl moves to lock out asylum seekers \SH Foes say effort incites neo-Nazis \BY Mark Fritz \CR ASSOCIATED PRESS \DT BERLIN BERLIN - Undaunted by rising public hostility and neo-Nazi terror, a record number of foreigners flooded into Germany last month to seek political asylum, federal officials said yesterday. The government released the statistics the same day a controversial rule took effect to speed the deportation of Romanian refugees, a move that critics say is aimed at Germany's much-maligned Gypsies. There were no immediate reports of the mass deportations that human rights activists had feared. Chancellor Helmut Kohl was reportedly weighing more new laws that would allow Germany to get around the liberal asylum law in the nation's postwar constitution. Critics contend that Mr. Kohl's campaign to toughen the asylum law has encouraged neo-Nazi violence, which has become commonplace in Germany. Police said thugs burned down a new refugee home in the Berlin suburb of Koenigs Wusterhausen early yesterday - one day before it was scheduled to open to 85 asylum seekers. Rightists also beat up an Indian refugee in Potsdam during the night and threw firebombs yesterday at a refugee home for 32 Africans in the Bavarian city of Waldkirchen. Nobody was hurt in the fire. Saturday night, activists stopped performances at several Berlin opera houses and theaters to pass out pamphlets denouncing the government's refugee policies. Federal officials say Germany, already burdened by the global recession and the astronomical costs of keeping the former East Germany afloat, cannot afford the deluge of refugees. Interior Minister Rudolf Seiters said 368,536 foreigners sought asylum from January through October, an 81 percent jump from the same period last year. He said 48,985 refugees registered in October alone, breaking the monthly record of 46,496 set in July. The numbers rose despite a sharp increase in neo-Nazi attacks in the past three months. Under Germany's asylum rules, people who declare themselves refugees at the border are admitted to the country and given food and shelter while awaiting word on their asylum application, a process that can take two years. To change the constitutional clause on asylum, Mr. Kohl's conservative coalition needs a two-thirds parliamentary majority, which would require the support of the left-leaning Social Democrats. The Social Democrats, torn internally over the issue, plan to meet in two weeks to assess their basic opposition to the change. Lawmaker Johannes Gerster, deputy chairman of Mr. Kohl's Christian Democrat faction in the Bundestag chamber of parliament, told the Welt am Sonntag newspaper that the refugee storm was a "social emergency." He said his coalition would pass alternative measures unless the Social Democrats gave in on the asylum law. The newsmagazine Der Spiegel and the tabloid Bild am Sonntag also said Mr. Kohl was planning alternative measures that would require only a simple majority in parliament. One such alternative would be to ban asylum seekers from countries that Germany determines do not politically persecute their people. The government already has tried other ways to trim its refugee caseload. In September, Bonn signed a treaty with Romania requiring Bucharest to take back Romanian refugees who lacked proper identification or who had been denied asylum but refused to leave. This is the treaty that went into effect yesterday. Mr. Seiters, the interior minister, has said the treaty could speed the deportations of 100,000 Romanians living illegally in Germany. But it triggered international criticism because most Romanian refugees are Gypsies. The statistics released Sunday showed that the largest group of refugees in October, 15,007, came from Romania, although the number was down from 17,240 in September. The next-largest group came from war-ravaged former Yugoslavia, followed by Bulgaria, Turkey, Algeria and the former Soviet Union. This article is copyright 1992 The Washington Times. Redistribution to other sites is not permitted except by arrangement with American Cybercasting Corporation. For more information, send-email to usa@AmeriCast.COM