As lawyers for those affected, we would like to protest against the arbitrary treatment of visa applications from Bangladesh. This has already started with the acceptance and processing of applications being delayed by more than three weeks due to a temporary closure of the visa acceptance centre (read more here).
The Visa application from M. was rejected on 1 September on the grounds that there were Doubts about his intention to return. This assumption is completely baseless! Our client is a trade union official and organizer for the trade union work of the Garment Workers Trade Union Centre Bangladesh (GWTUC). He was invited to visit Germany by the district women’s council chair of the ver.di Duisburg-Niederrhein trade union. This visit is intended to provide an insight into trade union work in Germany. In his work, our client is committed to compliance with the supply chain law, among other things; he is also active in the democracy movement in Bangladesh. Bangladesh is the second largest textile exporter in the world after China. 80 percent of the almost 4 million textile workers in Bangladesh are women, and our client and the umbrella organization GWTUC are particularly committed to their rights. The rejection is therefore also in line with open contradiction to the “Guidelines of Feminist Foreign Policy” of the Federal Government. On page 11 of the “Guidelines” it says: “We are committed to ensuring that the rights of women and girls are respected and promoted worldwide.” This commitment is torpedoed by the refusal of the visa.
On 4 September, our client applied to the Berlin Administrative Court for an interim injunction against this decision (case number: 31 L 236/24 V). Completely uncritical the court accepted the untenable argument of the German Embassy in Dhaka and rejected this application in a decision of today. In addition, the court does not consider the matter to be urgent; he would suffer “no serious and unreasonable disadvantages” if he made his trip at a later date. This decision will be not accepted and Complaint to the Higher Administrative Court of Berlin-Brandenburg.
The Visa application from B. has not yet been decided despite inquiries. Last year, B. filed a successful lawsuit with the Berlin Administrative Court against the refusal of a visa to participate in the 1st World Congress of the “Anti-Imperialist and Anti-Fascist International United Front” (United Front) (case number: VG 4 K 290/23 V). In its judgment of January 15, 2024, the court found that the decision of the German Embassy refusing to issue the visa was unlawful. The embassy had failed across the board with its defamation that our client was allegedly endangering public order. It can be assumed that the delay represents a petty act of revenge. This would be a blatant attack on our client’s rights and grossly unlawful. We demand the Immediate issuance of both visas!
See also Fundraising: Significant but expensive visa battles
