More than 150 people protested in Hamburg to protect church asylum for refugees. Under the motto “Hands off the church asylum” they came together for a vigil on Jungfernstieg on Tuesday evening (October 8, 2024). “It is part of the core mission of our Christian message to give people who are weak a voice – even against political resistance,” said the refugee representative of the Protestant Northern Church, Dietlind Jochims. The authorities are welcome to argue with the church about this, but they would have to respect the church’s asylum.
Archbishop Stefan Heße thanked the participants in the vigil for their support and solidarity. In a greeting read by Pastor Markus Diederich from Hamburg-Bergedorf, Heße wrote: “The church asylum is a valuable asset that we all have to handle carefully. It continues to be needed to avert threats of human rights violations and other humanitarian hardships. When parishes and religious orders grant church asylum, they are not going against the rule of law. Rather, it is about a service to the foundation of our legal system – the protection of the dignity of every human being. State law also applies in the area of the church. However, practice in recent years also shows that there are good reasons for the tradition of church asylum to be respected by the state. Because thanks to the church asylum, it is always possible to find humanitarianally responsible solutions in exchange with the responsible authorities.”
The reason for the demonstration was the eviction of a church asylum by the Hamburg authorities last week. A 29-year-old Afghan man was picked up from a building at the Catholic parish of Saint Elisabeth in the Bergedorf district. The Catholic Archbishop of Hamburg Stefan Heße and the Protestant Bishop Kirsten Fehrs criticized the measure. It was the first time something like this happened in Hamburg. Authorities across the country have recently repeatedly evacuated church asylums.
With church asylum, congregations or orders accept asylum seekers if they believe that deportation poses a threat to the life and limb of the refugee. It is based on an agreement between the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees and the churches. Accordingly, a parish must explain in a dossier the reasons why it grants church asylum in individual cases. The office then reviews the case again.
