Foreigners’ Office of Wittenberg defeated in the social court of Dessau-Roßlau 0n 14.12.2012
Reduction of provisions of Human right activist Salomon Wantchoucou was illegal
deutsch: Ausländerbehörde Wittenberg unterliegt vor Sozialgericht Dessau am 14.12.2012
Report on the trial of Wantchoucou vs. foreigners’ office Wittenberg in the social court of Dessau-Roßlau on 14.12.2012
A few days, after the administration district of Wittenberg officially announced the closure of the isolation camp of Möhlau, which refugees fought against for years, the authorities face another defeat.
They had shortened the social provisions of refugee activist Salomon Wantchoucou for a period of two years to the minimum of AsylbLG § 1a, with the claim that he allegedly had violated the obligation of cooperation in terms of identity clearing.
The judge Mr. Ashauer had already criticized the foreigners’ office during the previous hearing on February 24th 2012 (http://thecaravan.org/node/3214) for not stating concretely, what Salomon.Wantchoucou is obliged to do. Despite the fact that Salomon Wantchoucou participated in many hearings with embassy delegation officers of Benin and Nigeria and he even organized to bring his birth certificate from Cotonou, Benin.
In February 2010, the state administrative office of Sachsen-Anhalt had already refused Wittenberg’s request to send him to the deportation camp of Halberstadt for a language test by saying that Wantchoucou fulfilled all the obligations. His refusal to participate in a language test for Haussa could not be used against him, because it’s not his local language.
Salomon Wantchoucou reclaimed some space in the trial to point out the political dimension of the process by resuming the whole story and indicating his retraumatization through the German authorities.
The interpreter, who translated slowly and not always completely, twisted – as it happens in many trials – the core issues mentioned by Salomon Wantchoucou upside down. While Salomon Wantchoucou stated how, coming to Germany traumatized from a political assassination had to face another deprivation of his rights and repressions, she translated twice, that Salomon Wantchoucou was scared of deportation due to fear of persecution in Benin. But Salomon Wantchoucou interrupted her then to make his statement in German.
Although the judge already stopped him to notify that political questions were not relevant here, the refugee activists didn’t get distracted:
“I demand a sovereign state of law to not only treat his own citizens well, but to treat everybody equally. […] My second escape from Germany to Switzerland had the only reason that I faced repressions and retraumatization through the German authorities!”
Furthermore Wantchoucou criticized the practice of embassy hearings which contribute to endanger his life: The „language test „in his local language consisted only in the exchange of “How are you?”, “Fine.” And the claimed statement of Nigerian embassy officers by the foreign office themselves, which the foreigner’s’ office of Wittenberg followed, that due to his accent in French, he could supposed to be from an English-speaking country, is intentionally formulated and wrong because it neglects the fact, that he used to live during his childhood in South-Africa for long years and that in Germany he has mainly English-speaking friends.
Without referring to the practice of identity clearing, the judge Ashauer pointed out, that he severely questions the executed shortening of cash money and clothes, since the shortened provisions of AsylbLG were already condemned unconstitutional by the constitutional court before, reducing them would signify a “no go” for him. More than that, the shortenings were illegal, because Mr. Salomon Wantchoucou had respected the obligations of identity clearing fully and furthermore, the obligations were not concretely formulated. This is why a sum of monthly 40, 90 € are to be paid for the period of 2008-2010.
The representatives of the foreigners’ office Wittenberg didn’t’ want to accept the judgement immediately, but considers appealing it. This would lead to years of waiting for the higher social court of Sachsen-Anhalt to treat the case.
Notwithstanding this, the decision signified a defeat and a warning for the Wittenberg authorities to stop harassing and repressing resisting innocent refugees by almost entirely cutting down their material means and denying them their legal right
The VOICE Refugee Forum Jena trial observation