Church asylum: More and more refugees seek protection in churches

Pastor Tobias Heyden says he will never forget the sight of police vehicles blocking his rectory on the evening of May 12, 2024. Around ten armed police officers surrounded his parish hall in Bienenbüttel, a tranquil community of 7,000 in Lower Saxony. Police arrested a family from Russia who was hiding there — a couple with an adult son and a 16-year-old daughter — and flew them from the Cologne/Bonn airport to Barcelona that same night.

That was the first time in decades that the state of Lower Saxony deployed the police to end a church asylum. "I am in a state of shock," Heyden told DW.

The asylum-seekers in this case were a Russian family who had been granted a Schengen tourist visa by Spain. They were visiting relatives in Germany when a Russian conscription order for the father and son arrived. The family did not want the men to participate in Russia's war against Ukraine, so they applied for asylum in Germany. But according to European law, Spain, not Germany, was responsible for the family, as it was their point of entry to the EU. According to EU law, refugees must apply for asylum in the EU country where they first register. So Germany deported them to Spain.

"We are still in touch through their relatives. And we know that the family is not doing well," said Heyden. The mother is severely traumatized, he explained, pointing out that she had been receiving medical treatment in Germany.

Pastor Tobias Heyden granted church asylum to a Russian familyImage: Tobias Heyden

Rising numbers

The family deported from Bienenbüttel was one of almost 600 cases of church asylum in Germany, according to figures provided by the church. For around 40 years, religious institutions in Germany have been offering protection for refugees threatened with deportation. This kind of protection is technically unlawful  — but it is usually tolerated by German authorities.

There is a written agreement from 2015 to that effect between the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees (BAMF) and representatives of Germany's major churches. 2023 saw the highest number of church asylums since German churches began protecting people in this way. The first months of 2024 have seen numbers rise compared to the same period last year.

Jesuit priest Dieter Müller has been working with refugees for decades. "The numbers are high, but the asylum requests we get are five, even ten times higher than what we can manage," he told DW. "There are far more requests than available spots."

Refugees have been living in Müller's church in Nuremberg for the past two years. At the moment, an Iraqi family is living there. Müller says this family had been imprisoned upon arrival in Lithuania — a violation of European law.

Müller describes the Iraqi family — especially the children — as "definitely traumatized." Germany cannot simply send them back to the Baltic States, he argues. He says that is the reason they will remain in the church's care until they gain the right to a fair asylum procedure in this country.

European asylum law causing problems

People who entered the EU and then moved across borders to Germany rather than applying for asylum are supposed to be deported. But refugees are now allowed to stay if they have lived in Germany for longer than six months. Churches provide refugees with safe lodging for that period.

"That is why we continue to feel that granting church asylum to at least a small number of refugees, who have experienced terrible things in another EU country, is justified," explains Müller.

Will Pastor Tobias Heyden also keep granting church asylum, after that intervention by the police? The pastor is standing firm and says he has heard no one in his community criticize his church's commitment to the Russian family. He added that the majority of people in Bienenbüttel believe the eviction "broke a taboo."

 This article was originally written in German.

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