legal and social conditions for asylum seekers and refugees in ...

Legal aid
Asylum seekers are not entitled to free legal aid during the first instance procedure conducted by
the Federal Office for the Recognition of Foreign Refugees.
During the second instance before the administrative courts, free legal aid is only granted to
those appellants, whose case is deemed to have real prospects of success. In practice, very few
are appointed a lawyer free of charge. A very limited number of asylum seekers have enough
resources to hire and pay for a lawyer themselves.
Interpreters
Interpreters are provided at all levels of the procedure and are paid for by the State. In practice,
some problems may arise in terms of the quality of the services provided, especially where rare
languages or dialects are concerned.
Unaccompanied minors
According to Section 12 of the Asylum Procedure Act, unaccompanied minors over the age of 16
years can submit an application for asylum. As far as younger children are concerned, a guardian
must be appointed who will submit the application on behalf of the child and who will act as
his/her legal representative during the procedure.
Otherwise there are no specific provisions or guidelines for the processing of applications
submitted by unaccompanied minors.
Female asylum seekers
A woman whose asylum claim is related to sexual violence or torture or gender-related
persecution may request to be interviewed by a female officer with the assistance of a female
interpreter. However, as female applicants are not always informed of this right, this is not applied
in all cases.
Otherwise there are no specific provisions regarding female asylum seekers and their
applications are thus processed in the same way as those submitted by men.
Final rejection
The number of rejected asylum seekers deported in 1999 can be estimated at approximately
32,000 (34,000 in 1998).
Rejected applicants who cannot be deported for reasons beyond their control may, under certain
conditions, be granted a residence permit according to Section 30 (3) and (4) of the Aliens Act.
In addition, some of them may benefit from a so-called “longstayers regulation” (“Altfallregelung”).
According to this, certain aliens who have had tolerated residence or who could not be returned
for a long period of time may be granted residence permits, under certain conditions. Under the
last “Altfallregelung” in November 1999, rejected asylum seekers who had come to Germany
before 1 January 1990 (or before 1 July 1993 for families with at least one minor child) could
apply for a residence permit provided that they had work, had not been sentenced for any
criminal offence and did not originate from Bosnia-Herzegovina or the Federal Republic of
Yugoslavia (including Kosovo).
On average, about 50% of rejected asylum seekers have remained in Germany on the basis of
other forms of residence criteria or Duldung over the past few years.
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