The current situation calls on us as a network of migrant and anti-racist groups and organizations in Berlin to demand the permanent and unconditional legalization of all migrants without residence documents in this country.
It is estimated that between 60,000 and 100,000 undocumented migrants live in Berlin. There are many reasons why they are in this situation.
The situation of this social group is marked by precariousness and social invisibility. They suffer from lack of access to health, housing, education, decent work and exercise of a free life, which shows that human rights are not for everyone.
In the German context we have two particular problems as follows – On one hand the policies of criminalization, persecution and control of migration, on the other, the silencing of this reality in the German society. Both contribute to rendering the undocumented population invisible. One example of this politically produced invisibility the lack of qualitative and quantitative data, which prevents us from knowing how many they are, where they are and which urgencies are pressing them.
Today, facing a global pandemic, it is time to break the taboo and proceed towards full citizenship rights for all undocumented migrants. That is why we demand the following from the corresponding authorities
1. The extraordinary, universal, urgent and permanent legalization of all migrants in an irregular situation in Berlin.
2. That the procedure to be implemented towards this put migrants at the center as subjects with rights and guarantee the concrete access to and the promotion of these rights.
3. Legalization by means of existing legal instruments such as § 23(1) of the Residence Act (AufenthG), which could be used to grant residence to persons in an irregular migration status on humanitarian grounds.
4. Abolition of paragraph 87 of the Residence Act, which requires that employees of public bodies, (with the exception of educational bodies), transfer to the immigration authority (Ausländerbehörde) the personal data of anyone in an illegal situation.
LEGALISATION NOW! Join us to demand legalization; the current crisis shows more clearly that no one should be excluded from fundamental social rights!
