“A damned man in the Hessian province” – This was the title of a report in last week’s Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung about a student who is currently waiting in Hesse for his asylum application to be approved. In his home country of Pakistan, he is threatened with death after a “blasphemous” Mohammed video, of which he is the author, became known.
The Pakistani atheist is not an isolated case in this situation, as non-religious people are threatened, persecuted or murdered in many countries because of their atheist, agnostic or anti-religious views. In Bangladesh, three people were killed in the first half of 2015 because of their views critical of Islam.
In the Federal Republic of Germany and some other European countries, people can also seek refuge from such dangers to life and limb – and more and more of these cases are becoming known. However, even non-denominational people seeking protection who have not fled their homeland due to religious persecution require appropriate consideration of their special needs by the authorities, in the approval process or in the accommodation facilities.
Representatives of the BAMF and the Humanist Association met in Nuremberg on May 7, 2015 to raise public awareness and work towards a responsible refugee policy. Two of them now provide information about the talks: Florian Zimmermann, Chairman of the Humanist Association of Hesse, who has already gained concrete experience in providing asylum support for non-religious people seeking protection, and Michael Bauer, Chairman of the Humanist Association of Bavaria, who organized the meeting.
What were the topics of the discussion with the representatives of the Federal Office?
Michael Bauer: Essentially, the aim was to raise awareness of the concerns of non-religious people and, in particular, of refugees who are here because they are being persecuted for religious reasons. Therefore, the main focus was on questions relating to the asylum procedure and the extent to which a humanist world view of the persecuted person is considered grounds for asylum in certain countries. We are currently familiar with the terrible images from Bangladesh, but such persecution is also known from Arab and African countries. And we discussed the extent to which the Humanist Association can play a greater role within the structures of refugee work.
Florian Zimmermann: Based on the individual cases we looked after, we tried to create a basic understanding of the special needs of people seeking protection with a non-religious world view.
Have the concerns raised met with interest?
Zimmermann: Our concerns have been met with an open ear. We were promised that the internal guideline on religions would be supplemented to include non-religious world views. However, the BAMF assumes that there are hardly any religiously persecuted atheists beyond the cases we are looking after. We disagree and have made it clear that we expect the number of unreported cases to be very high. This is because 3000 refugees per year already claim to be non-denominational. Of these, over 1000 people come from Iran, where “apostasy” is punishable by death.
What particular problems do non-religious people seeking protection face?
Bauer: There are cases where refugees or asylum seekers who have fled because of religious persecution meet people who are blinded by religious fanaticism in the reception centers. It is important to ensure that – if I may put it this way – not everyone from one country should be grouped together just because they come from the same region. Rather, the reasons why someone has come here must also be taken into account. And this brings us to the second problem: the questions asked by the BAMF do not take sufficient account of humanist and atheist backgrounds, but instead focus on questions about religion. What are you supposed to answer if you don’t have one? One background to this situation is certainly the fact that the German government, in accordance with the coalition agreement, wants to explicitly and especially take care of persecuted Christians. However, I think we were able to achieve a further development in our interests during the talks.
What else was the meeting about?
Zimmermann: Since the restriction of negative religious freedom can also justify refugee protection under EU refugee law, it is important in the asylum procedure to make credible the affiliation to a non-religious world view that is suppressed in the home country. We were told that people involved with us – preferably even volunteer members – are humanists in the asylum decision. The Federal Office probably has very good dossiers on the situation of persecuted religious minorities in the individual countries. We offered to forward the IHEU’sFreedom of Thought Report, which describes the situation of non-religious people in detail. This was gratefully accepted and we have since sent the report to the BAMF.
What concrete opportunities do humanists have to help here?
Bauer: There are many. On the one hand, there are a lot of local initiatives that are committed to helping refugees and asylum seekers in our country. In some places, the HVD has also set up its own project, for example in Bavaria with the WeShare volunteer services. I think that human care and help in a country that is completely foreign to the refugees is the most important thing that can be done simply and directly. On the other hand, it is not easy for most charitable organizations that get involved to be able to finance this commitment. Giving a little and making a targeted donation, e.g. to a local initiative that you know and where you know what happens with the money, is therefore always a sensible thing to do.
Where would you focus your efforts?
Zimmermann: Since a large part of the support for refugees is provided by churches, there is a blind spot for the needs of people with a non-religious world view. I see it as the core task of the Humanist Association to close this gap. The most effective way to do this would be to create a separate asylum procedure counseling service. However, it also makes sense to further sensitize the advisors of other social institutions and the decision-makers at the BAMF to the issue. I anticipate a great need for additional secular counseling. Funding must be found for this. For example, counseling for people who are persecuted because of their homosexuality should not be provided by institutions that discriminate against these people on the basis of their sexual orientation or even regard them as “sinners”.
More on the topic:
Report: Atheists and non-denominational people persecuted and disadvantaged worldwide
