#rejected asylum applications

[munaeem]

Germany’s Deportation Drama: Pakistanis Out, Politics In

So, last week—February 27, 2025, to be exact—Germany sent 43 Pakistanis packing on a charter flight from Frankfurt to Islamabad. Picture this: a plane loaded with folks from Germany, Austria, and Cyprus. Among them, 19 had rap sheets ranging from public intoxication to serious stuff like violent crimes. The rest? Likely a mix of illegal entry cases or asylum applications that got the big red…

[xtruss]

Houston, Texas: Where Asylum Cases Come To Die! Some Immigration Lawyers Relish A Challenge

— By Dan Halpern | April 14, 2024 | 1843 Magazine

So this is what I want you to say: that you fear you would be killed.” It was early March and Laure Dachelet, a lawyer based in Houston, Texas, was preparing a client who was about to present his asylum case before a judge. “I mean, they threatened to kill you several times. They put a bomb in front of your house. So the intention to kill you was pretty clear. You need to say so.”

The client, a 30-year-old man called Farid, nodded gently. It had been a long wait to get to this point. Farid had fled Afghanistan in 2014 and, after a perilous three-year journey to America that took him through a dozen countries, applied for asylum in 2017; he had yet to see a judge, seven years later. Until 2014 he had worked as a translator for the British Army and the Afghan national police at a military base outside Lashkar Gah, in Helmand province. Driving home one night, after his last day at work, he was stopped by Taliban forces.

“The Taliban beat me and then let me go,” was how Farid had initially described the incident. With Dachelet’s prodding, a longer narrative emerged. The Taliban had accused him of working with the enemy. Farid insisted that he was coming back from a doctor’s appointment. They beat him and interrogated him, but Farid stuck to his story and finally they let him go. Days later the Taliban found proof that he had worked with the British. They told Farid’s father that they would kill his son when they found him, then they bombed Farid’s home.

The Taliban Found Proof That Farid Had Worked With The British. They Told His Father That They Would Kill His Son When They Found Him, Then They Bombed Farid’s Home

Dachelet, who had previously been a judge in the French family courts, explained that the judge would try to suss out whether Farid was telling the truth. She would evaluate his demeanour, watch for whether he answered or avoided questions, check whether his story was consistent with his written declaration and documents. That was always the danger for an asylum-seeker: an applicant could have all the boxes ticked, but a judge was free to decide he was lying. The more detailed your story, the more likely a judge is to believe it. But asylum lawyers need to weigh up carefully how much information their clients provide. The more they offer, the greater the possibility that under examination they will confuse or misremember events.

Farid mentioned that before they took him to be interrogated, the Taliban had covered his face with a scarf. Why had they done that, asked Dachelet?

“In Islam, in the religion, if your clothes are bloody, you cannot pray on that day, you will need to change your clothes,” said Farid. “So they didn’t want to get blood on their—”

Dachelet interrupted. “Why were you bleeding?”

“Oh, because they hit me with the back of the gun.”

“OK, this is why we need to be more detailed,” said Dachelet. “You need to say, one of them hit me in the face with the butt of the AK-47 and I started bleeding. You talk about the scarf, and the blood, and we don’t really make the connection. I know your story, you know your story. Let’s pretend the judge and the attorney for the government don’t know your story.”

She asked Farid what date he arrived in America. He thought about it before replying: “2017. August, or September.”

“July,” Dachelet said.

“July? I don’t think it was July,” Farid said.

“July is what we said on your declaration,” Dachelet said.

This mistake was concerning. A judge is on the lookout for inconsistencies in an applicant’s story – the de facto rule is that three mistakes like this can be grounds for rejection. One judge may have some sympathy for the argument that no one can remember every date and detail of their life story perfectly accurately; another may have none.

In this case, Farid’s mistake might have resulted from his confusion over how dates are formatted in America – with the month before the day – which is different from how other countries do it. But it’s exactly the kind of thing some judges could use to deny his claim. He would need to stick to July.

Dachelet explained that, in order to grant asylum, the judge would need to be convinced that Farid was likely to face persecution if he returned home. “What makes you think you might be in danger if you went home?” she asked. “This all happened ten years ago, don’t you think they’ll have just forgotten about it?

A Judge Is On The Lookout For Inconsistencies In An Applicant’s Story – The de Facto Rule Is That Three Mistakes Like This Can Be Grounds For Rejection

“When the Taliban took over, they announced that they were forgiving all the people, wherever you worked…[They said] we are forgiving them, they can come, they come and be peaceful,” Farid said. “A lot of people went back. Most of them disappeared.”

Farid’s case seemed undeniable. He had a terrible story, a credible fear that he would be persecuted if he were deported, both for who he was and what he had done; he had documents proving what he said was true. He had been in the country for seven years, working long hours as a truck driver, a lawful contributor to society, if not yet a full member of it. But Houston is where asylum cases come to die.

Nationally, immigration courts grant asylum in about four out of ten cases. Houston’s courts, in common with those in Charlotte, Atlanta, Kansas City and a few other places, grant asylum in one out of ten. San Francisco’s courts, by contrast, approve seven out of ten asylum claims, while New York’s courts approve six out of ten.

These disparities can be partly explained by the fact that different kinds of migrants tend to settle in different cities. More Central Americans, for instance, come to Texas; more Asians come to California. Their cases for asylum tend to be very different.

Whether or not a case is successful can also depend on the judge. A national study of disparities in asylum adjudications found, for example, that Colombian applicants who brought their cases in Miami were granted asylum by one judge in 88% of cases, whereas another – in the same building – granted it only 5% of the time.

On the one hand Farid was unlucky. According to his lawyers, the judge who would be presiding over his case had previously rejected nine out of ten asylum applications (although the huge majority of her cases had come from Central America and Mexico, whose citizens have very low rates of successful applications across the court systems).

On the other hand, he was lucky that his case had been taken on by a law firm with an impressive record in asylum cases. Dachelet works for Political Asylum Lawyers, which was founded in 2020 by Brian Manning (above), a former asylum officer. It is unusual among immigration law firms: although most take on asylum cases, very few are dedicated to them. Manning told me that out of the 39 cases the firm has seen to conclusion over the past two years, only eight have resulted in deportation.

Manning grew up in Oklahoma and came from a background much like everyone he knew: white, Christian and conservative. He played high-school football and went to church on Sundays. Most of his contemporaries stayed in their home state. But in his third year at university, Manning spent a semester in St Petersburg, Russia, and felt the world open up. He finished law school, got married and joined the foreign service, working in Croatia, Bulgaria and Chile. He and his wife adopted two boys from the Democratic Republic of Congo. Although the couple loved living abroad, they wanted to raise their children in America, near their families. Early in 2017, as Donald Trump took office, they returned home.

Asylum-Seekers Typically Have No More Than An Hour To Convince An Asylum Officer That They Face A Significant Risk Of Persecution If They Return Home

Manning yearned for a career where he was “actually helping people and doing a good thing”. In Bulgaria, he had visited a camp for Syrian refugees, which had given him the idea to specialise in asylum law. He got a job as an asylum officer, working for the immigration service in Houston. He spent his days conducting “credible fear” interviews: one of the first steps in the asylum process. Asylum-seekers typically have no more than an hour to convince an asylum officer that they face a significant risk of persecution if they return home. If they pass, they can apply for asylum. If they fail, they have a right to appeal against the decision before a judge.

It was a tough job. “You’re hearing stories all day about torture and terrible things happening to people,” he said, “and you either think that they’re lying to you, which is frustrating, or you believe it, and you’re like, this is how this person had to live? This is what this person had to go through? My God.” Asylum officers typically burnt out around a year and a half in, Manning said, many of them suffering from a sort of secondary ptsd.

Most of the people he interviewed were from Central America, and described terrible poverty and violence: “You won’t join my gang? We’re going to kill you. You can’t pay my extortion fee for your shop? We’re going to kill you.” But as tragic as their stories were, most of the applicants were unlikely to satisfy the authorities handling their claims. People seeking asylum in America must demonstrate that they have suffered or were likely to suffer persecution on the basis of race, religion, nationality, political opinion or membership of a particular social group.

During the two years he worked as an asylum officer, Manning was depressed by the quality of asylum lawyers he met, most of whom, he said, were lousy, lazy and ineffective. Not that he encountered them that often. Asylum hearings are civil not criminal proceedings, so the government is not required to provide a lawyer, and few applicants can afford one. Sometimes asylum-seekers were helped by lawyers from non-profit organisations, who were generally excellent, said Manning, although there weren’t enough of them.

It was this feeling – that there were deserving applicants who were being let down by the system – that drove him to start his own firm. Manning felt that his experience playing for the other side, so to speak, could help his clients navigate a system of Byzantine complexity. He reckons that specialising in asylum law makes it easier to stay on top of the frequent changes to the law, something that a firm with a wider range of immigration issues might find challenging.

One piece of advice he gives his clients is knowing when it’s OK to admit you’ve lied. Because you can apply for asylum only once you are in America, and can’t get a visa to ask for asylum, many refugees claim they are coming for a holiday, even though they fully intend to overstay their tourist visa. “This kind of lie is not held against you at an asylum hearing,” Manning said. “But it is a problem if you say at your asylum interview that you’ve never lied in connection with a us immigration matter.” That is, you can lie to get here, but not lie about having lied. This is a favourite technique, he said, of asylum officers looking for excuses to reject applicants.

Manning Shares His Tips On Social Media, Including TikTok And Instagram. He’s Doing It To Attract Business, But Also To Help Those Who Can’t Afford His Services

Manning shares his tips on social media, including TikTok and Instagram. He’s doing it to attract business, but also to help those who can’t afford his services. The videos are professionally made, with choppy, attention-grabbing edits. “What if I told you you can pretty much win your asylum case before you ever set foot in the asylum office for your interview?” he says in one video, which takes viewers through creating an “asylum roadmap”. Most asylum officers are overworked and stressed, said Manning. They appreciate being presented with a package containing all the necessary information and legal reasoning: a written narrative, evidence to support it, and a description of the political conditions in the applicant’s homeland. It works, says Manning, “because you’ve done much of their work for them”.

Farad’s hearing took place on a Monday morning. He had the dates right this time, told his story clearly, and addressed the questions from the government lawyer directly and honestly. But there’s no such thing as an open-and-shut case, especially in asylum law. “I still get nervous, I’m certainly emotionally invested,” Manning said. “That’s natural for anyone working with these kinds of high stakes, or working with so much trauma. Did I cover everything I need to cover? Did I prepare enough for any surprises? I’ll go over it and over it.”

The hearing lasted just under an hour. “I’m inclined to grant the application,” the judge told Farid. The lawyer for the government said they would not appeal. It seemed done and dusted. Except it wasn’t, quite. Farid’s biometric information (including his fingerprints and photographs) were missing from the government’s file. Somehow, in the seven years he had been waiting, they had been misplaced. The judge couldn’t grant asylum until Farid made an appointment to have his biometric information recorded again. To get an appointment, he was told, he would have to wait only another few months. ■

— Dan Halpern is a Feature Writer ✍️ For 1843 Magazine | Illustrations: James Wilson | Images: Getty, Reuters

[stackslip]

In 2020, Uma Mirkhail got a firsthand demonstration of how damaging a bad translation can be. A crisis translator specializing in Afghan languages, Mirkhail was working with a Pashto-speaking refugee who had fled Afghanistan. A U.S. court had denied the refugee’s asylum bid because her written application didn’t match the story told in the initial interviews. In the interviews, the refugee had first maintained that she’d made it through one particular event alone, but the written statement seemed to reference other people with her at the time — a discrepancy large enough for a judge to reject her asylum claim. After Mirkhail went over the documents, she saw what had gone wrong: An automated translation tool had swapped the “I” pronouns in the woman’s statement to “we.” (...) Whether automated or not, translation flubs in Pashto and Dari have become commonplace. As recently as early April, the German Embassy to Afghanistan posted a tweet in Pashto decrying the Taliban’s ban on women working. The tweet was quickly ridiculed by native speakers, with some quote tweets claiming that not a single sentence was legible. “Kindly please don’t insult our language. Thousands [of] Pashtun are living in Germany but still they don’t hire an expert for Pashto,” posted one user, researcher Afzal Zarghoni. The German Embassy later deleted the tweet. Seemingly trivial translation errors can sometimes lead to harmful distortions when drafting asylum applications.

[aeternallis]

one of the things most frustrating to think about as someone who did go through the immigration system in the US is the fact that there seems to be a genuine belief by a significant portion of the populace in this country that the immigration system is a simple, straightforward process, when it most certainly is not.

for one thing, the applications to gain some form of legal status themselves are confusing af to actually read through. most of the applications uses confusing language and can be upwards of about 15-20 pages worth of documents you gotta spend time actually pouring through.

for example, currently the i-485 form (application for green card) sits at about 24 pages, and requires a couple of hours to fill out. for most immigrants who know little to no english, either they would have to sit with an english-speaking paralegal to help them, or one of their relatives who knows english would need to be the one to help them out.

the i-130 form (application for alien relatives) is about 12 pages, and just as hella confusing to go through.

the i-589 (application for asylum) and i-765 (application for worker's permit) aren't too bad in comparison, at about 7-8 pages, but even so, the legal language is still a hassle to try and understand.

(yes, I have helped both my parents fill out all these forms)

oh, and did i mention that every one of these forms cost money to file and submit to uscis for processing? this is not counting the typical immigration lawyer's fees immigrants have to fork up in order to get some decent representation, most immigrants still need to make a living one way or another, or how else are they to provide for their families and give their children a better future? (and ya know, afford the fees to try and actually go through the process of gaining legal status here???)

not only that, answering any of the questions wrong on any of these forms could be enough for uscis to reject the filing or outright deny it. and no, ofc there's no refunds on the application fees.

for a country that has a horrendous literacy crisis, i would so love to see the rest of y'all try to take a gander at these forms and see if you don't lose your goddamn mind.

have i mentioned how fucking terrifying it is when uscis officers grill you during the interview process???? because yes, there is an interview component to most of these forms. as if their questions are literally designed for you to fail???!!

this is just a few aspect of the immigration process that's so broken right now, it might as well be a 10k puzzle piece scattered in a room.

the strenuous waiting time between processing of applications, the anxiety of the elections every goddamn year because politicians cannot fucking make up their minds with how immigration ought to be tackled in this country, all the while immigrants also have to deal with the stress of everyday life and whatever challenges that brings.

uscis is still working through a backlog of applications from decades ago, and some people in this country really have the goddamn audacity to think, "they have to get here legally and go through the process that way"???!

a fucking luxury (ignorant af though, mind you) for some of y'all to say, indeed, especially if all it took back then for your family to get here was through ellis fucking island.

my aunt petitioned my dad with the i-589 form over 38 years ago when he was still living in the philippines, and mind you, the visa number from that filing was only granted and mailed to my dad's old house last year in december 2024, when we went home to visit relatives for the holidays and long after he's already become a US citizen.

i'm not asking for people to change their minds about immigration or that this country ought to let everyone in, i knowwwwww the system is broken and terrible.

but what i am asking is for people to educate themselves and to be open-minded, to not dismiss the struggles of immigrants, because those who think that the immigration process in this country is easy are hella ignorant and will never understand the sort of anxiety illegal immigrants go through, for the sake of trying to provide a better future for their children.

[acti-veg]

“There is the appearance that UK Special Forces blocked the Afghan special forces applications because they were witnesses to the alleged UK war crimes currently being investigated in the Afghan inquiry," Martin said.

Many are in hiding in Afghanistan, making it difficult to obtain legal representation or pro-actively contact the MoD. Dozens have reportedly been beaten, tortured, or killed by the Taliban since the group regained control of the country.

[allthegeopolitics]

A gay Bangladeshi man who fled to the UK in order to escape persecution for his sexuality was refused asylum by the Home Office, with a judge accusing him of pretending to be gay. Monsur Ahmed Chowdhury had his applications for asylum rejected by a judge following a hearing in March 2018 after moving to the UK as a student in 2009. Chowdhury is originally from Sylhet, a city in northeastern Bangladesh. According to Metro, a letter written by the judge in Chowdhury’s case argued that he is “not truly gay but he is trying to pass himself off as gay”.

Continue Reading

[mariacallous]

After years of fruitless discussions and aborted plans in the European Union, one country—Italy—has recently begun to process irregular migrants’ asylum claims in a third country for the first time. Or, to be more exact, it tried to do so.

Italy’s right-wing prime minister, Giorgia Meloni, who campaigned on an anti-immigration platform that included a naval blockade to stop immigration from North Africa, agreed with Albania last November to send some asylum-seekers to the Balkan country and process their asylum requests there.

Two recent attempts to ferry visa-less migrants rescued in the Mediterranean to Albania and fast-track their repatriation failed twice after Italian magistrates questioned the legality of Meloni’s landmark initiative. After getting two Albanian facilities ready for the purpose and staffing them with Italian personnel, in mid-October Rome sent there a group of 16 migrants it rescued in international waters while they attempted to cross the Mediterranean to reach Italy’s southern shores.

Under the so-called Italy-Albania protocol, Italy can ferry the migrants to Albania only if it considers their country of origin as safe and they aren’t minors, pregnant women, or other vulnerable people. However, an Italian court ruled that the migrants, who were from Egypt and Bangladesh, had to be transported to Italy within days because they could not be considered as coming from a safe country. An additional legal hurdle emerged for four of them because they either declared themselves as minors or had health problems.

Meloni’s government responded by approving by decree a list of 19 countries deemed safe for return, designating both Egypt and Bangladesh as free of danger. In November, Italian authorities sent a second group of eight Egyptian and Bangladeshi men (one of whom was found to be vulnerable and returned to Italy) to Albania, but the court again rejected the shipment. This time, it also asked the European Court of Justice (ECJ) to weigh in and clarify whether Italian law, in particular Rome’s recent designation of those 19 countries as safe for quick repatriation, is compatible with EU law, leaving the whole scheme in a legal limbo.

The court’s decisions sparked a loud rout between the Italian judiciary and government. Italian Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi said the decree “provides a standard” for judges to follow, rather than indulging in a “wavering interpretation” of the EU judgment.

Meloni denounced the decision to transport the migrants to Italy from Albania, calling it prejudiced, while Justice Minister Carlo Nordio said it was “abnormal” for judges to establish which countries could be deemed safe. Elon Musk, who is a friend of Meloni, weighed in the spat, writing on X after the second court decision that “[t]hese judges need to go” and doubling down later on by asking: “Do the people of Italy live in a democracy or does an unelected autocracy make the decisions?”

In a highly unusual response to Musk, Italy’s widely respected head of state, Sergio Mattarella, said the country “knows how to take care of itself.”

At the heart of the controversy lies an October ruling by the ECJ, which stated that no country of origin could be declared safe unless its entire territory was considered free of danger. The ruling referred to a Czech case but is applicable across the whole EU, prevailing over national legislation. Italian judges said they are forced to follow EU law and not apply Italian law if it conflicts with the bloc’s legislation. The Italian government appealed to the country’s Supreme Court to nullify the judges’ rejections. Its decision is expected in December.

However, the final word is likely to remain with the ECJ, according to legal experts, which in turn could take months to clarify whether Italy is able to fast-track irregular migrants’ repatriation in Albania.

The spat between the Italian government and the judiciary is casting doubts over the viability of the policy, which had attracted interest and praise from other European countries, as a way to deter illegal immigration to the continent.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen championed the Italian initiative, urging the bloc’s 27 leaders ahead of a summit in October to consider the possibility of creating repatriation hubs outside the EU, drawing “lessons from the Italy-Albania protocol.” At the summit, the leaders then committed to explore “innovative solutions” to fight against illegal immigration.

A debate at the European Parliament in late October showed that moderate, conservative, and right-wing politicians, who are in favor of a major clampdown on illegal immigration, tend to support the plan. In contrast, the socialists said it represents a violation of both EU and international law, the Greens branded the hubs as ‎Guantánamo-style concentration camps, and the liberals said it is an expensive and ineffective model.

This year, the EU passed the long-stalled Migration and Asylum Pact, designed to accelerate the repatriation of failed asylum-seekers and distribute the burden of hosting migrants and refugees among member states. The agreement, which is the latest attempt by the EU to manage and normalize migration flows into the continent, will come into force in June 2026.

Individual EU countries have mulled similar plans to Meloni’s to deter the arrival of irregular migrants in their countries. Germany, which accounts for around a third of asylum applications in the EU, will assess options for processing in third countries in December. The country’s conservatives, who are likely to win next year’s federal elections, have already signaled that they would support such deals.

A different, more radical plan to send asylum-seekers to Rwanda by former British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak was ruled unlawful by the country’s Supreme Court last year. Sunak’s successor, Keir Starmer, dismissed the policy of deporting asylum-seekers to the African country as a “gimmick.” However, after meeting with Meloni in September, he hailed Italy’s efforts to tackle illegal immigration, saying the two countries would share intelligence and work more closely together to “smash” the people-smuggling gangs. He added that he was “very interested” in Italy’s agreement with Albania but that he would wait to see the results after it became operational.

Even if legal hurdles were solved, many have criticized the Italy-Albania protocol as very expensive and completely ineffective at deterring migrants’ arrivals.

Matteo Villa, a researcher at the Italian Institute for International Political Studies in Milan, estimated that the cost of processing one migrant application in Albania, if the centers there ran at their full capacity of 10,500 asylum-seekers a year, is nine times the cost borne by the country if it processed them in Italy.

Given that the Italian government said the plan would cost around 130 million euros (about $137 million) a year and that each Albanian center can host at any one time up to 1,200 people, that translates into a cost per migrant of 297 euros (about $312) a day, Villa estimated, compared with the 33 euros Italy currently spends processing the applications on its soil.

At the same time, Villa concluded that taking as a baseline the arrival of 75,000 irregular migrants in the year to October, that the two centers can take only 10,500 a year, and considering the existing repatriation rates of asylum-seekers whose requests are processed in Italy, the probability of being taken to Albania and then repatriated is less than 2 percent.

“What governments should rather do is to work to increase their ability to repatriate the migrants, wherever they process their applications. Putting migrants in small centers abroad could only make it appear that there are less arrivals for a short period of time, but then almost all the migrants would end up in Italy,” Villa told Foreign Policy. “To make external return hubs work, governments would need to strike very strong agreements with third countries to be able to build a high number of these centers. This would enable Europe to show irregular migrants that if they try to enter illegally, they will systematically end up there and then repatriated.”

Villa added that individual countries have little leverage to negotiate with the countries of origin besides offering financial help to these countries in exchange for taking back the migrants. If the EU were to negotiate with these countries as a bloc, then European nations would be able to achieve better results, he added.

In the past decade, the EU was able to curb flows from specific countries of departure through agreements involving aid. Migration has also changed since 2015, when the wars in Syria, Iraq, and Afghanistan led to an influx of people fleeing those conflicts. With the notable exception of Ukrainian refugees, many now mostly hail from poor countries in search for a better life, with ruthless organizations of smugglers assuring them that it would be easy to get into Europe.

In 2016, the EU struck a deal with Turkey; the hefty aid package to the country was successful at preventing migrants from crossing into the EU. Migrants shifted to the more dangerous route from Libya to Italy. Another EU deal, giving boats and equipment to the infamous Libyan Coast Guard, helped reduce that flow. More recently, an accord with Tunisia, brokered by Meloni and von der Leyen, curbed departures from the North African country.

These deals attracted widespread criticism by human rights organizations and have been shaky at times but overall helped reduce the flows. Yearly irregular migrants’ arrivals dropped from around 390,000 in 2016 to 100,000 in 2020, according to the International Organization for Migration. Then they began rising again each year, up to 293,000 in 2023. Until November this year, Europe registered 189,000 arrivals.

Meanwhile, the populations of many European countries have kept on aging and shrinking, posing a host of problems, such as the sustainability of public pension systems and the shortage of personnel in the industrial and agricultural sectors. For instance, the research center of Italy’s industrial lobby Confindustria said in October that Italy needs roughly 120,000 foreign workers a year up to 2028 to achieve the economic growth forecasts for the period.

“The problem could be partially addressed by building programs through which the skills and profiles of qualified prospective migrants are screened to see how they can be matched with the needs of European employers,” said Salvatore Petronella, a migration specialist at the Washington-based Labor Mobility Partnerships. “Centers for training and employment can be created outside of the EU but not confused with rejection centers, which would be costly and of little use.”

Some European countries such as Germany have begun to warm up to the idea and are integrating increasing numbers of migrants into their workforce, by investing in sponsorships and training abroad. These programs tend also to help the countries of origins of migrants, as normally part of the salaries these workers earn in Europe is sent back as remittances and the migrants acquire skills that can be used in their home countries at a later stage.

Still, the prevailing European approach seems to be to stop the flows at any cost and to fast-track repatriations. To this end, external return hubs may be seen as a tool, provided that the EU manages to operate them in a host of different third countries. At this stage, however, the Italian experience is far from encouraging.

[moregraceful]

no sleep meds experiment over, i think i've gotten like four hours of sleep total over the past two days and after last night spending about 3 hours lying in bed crafting what should have been a sexy imagine but instead some kind of strongly held delusion that klim kostin was an asylum seeker due to being gay, i met with my new psychiatric nurse today and said i can't do this 👍 and she said yeah that one doubled as a antipsychotic? no you cannot. so starting a different med that doesn't cause neurological damage with long term use, which was the reason i stopped taking it, and i feel much better abt this nonsense.

got an email for the final school i was waiting for official confirmation from...3/3 100% tuition covered 😭 ego huge. maybe i am good? maybe. unfortunately the last school i was waiting on made their decision for me by being weirdly transphobic in their application and having awful communication. i was weighing the other two more carefully bc one has me commuting out of state weekly and one allows me to have a social life in philly, but i'd be a fucking idiot to pass up free tuition + free money to one of the most prestigious programs in the country. so amtrak it is. been sitting here with 3 different decision pages open all night in between badly timed loads of laundry musing the optics of rejecting an offer within 4 hours of receiving it. maybe don't be transphobic tho

however my biggest win of the day is giving my hbo max password to two friends bc hbo max is of all the streaming services i subscribe, except flo sports, the biggest waste of my money in that i do not use that service at all. but my friend back home is obsessed with sex in the city + girlboss comedy stand up and my uncle is obsessed with game of thrones and they both have my account, so i've been paying $16 a month since like 2020 to watch band of brothers once every two years. imho letting people freeload off your accounts is one of life's greatest little pleasures. you're getting more out of your money tbh. and that's why flo sports is not seeing heaven.

[beardedmrbean]

Opposing protests took place in the southern German city of Munich on Sunday following a deadly car-ramming attack that killed two people and rekindled a debate on deportations just days before a nationwide election.

On Thursday, a 24-year-old Afghan national drove a car into a trade union demonstration in Munich, injuring at least 39 people, some seriously. A 37-year-old woman and her 2-year-old daughter died on Saturday as a result of their injuries.

Investigators in the state of Bavaria currently assume that the crime had an Islamist motive, based on statements made by the driver after his arrest.

The far-right anti-migrant Alternative for Germany (AfD) staged a vigil on Munich's central square Königsplatz on Sunday, a few hundred metres from the scene of the attack.

Those opposed to exploiting the attack for political purposes held their own demonstration opposite the AfD gathering. Police put the number attending the AfD vigil at 70, and the demonstration at 600.

Around 50 counter-protesters formed a human chain to prevent AfD supporters from laying flowers at the site of the attack, police said.

Footage showed police then using force on several people, as witnesses also reported. Police said they briefly detained eight people for offences against a ban on wearing masks and an attempt to cause bodily harm to police officers.

In a statement published by the Munich authorities on their official website earlier on Sunday, the family of the woman and child had appealed for the attack not to be used to foment hatred.

"Amel was a person who worked for justice," the statement said, emphasizing that she had been active in seeking rights for workers and in promoting solidarity and equality.

Amel, who was born in Algeria and came to Germany at the age of 4, had been opposed to xenophobia and had wanted to pass these values on to her daughter, Hafsa, the statement said.

Bavarian premier calls for negotiations with Taliban on deportations

The political debate in the aftermath of the attack centred on the issue of deportations, with Bavarian Premier Markus S��der calling for immediate negotiations with the Taliban on deportation flights to Afghanistan.

"A flight is needed every week," Söder told the Sunday edition of Germany's Bild newspaper. Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock and Interior Minister Nancy Faeser should speak directly to the Taliban about deportation flights from Monday, he said.

Söder said there are almost 2,000 Afghans in the state of Bavaria alone who are required to leave Germany. Almost 200 of them are serious offenders, he added.

"Afghans obliged to leave the country must do so quickly, and the issuance of new visas [for Afghans] must be stopped for the foreseeable future," the conservative premier said.

"First Aschaffenburg, now Munich: Enough is enough. Germany needs an emergency plan for Afghanistan," he said, referring to another attack committed by an Afghan national in a different Bavarian city in January, which left two people dead.

According to the authorities, the alleged perpetrator of the attack in Munich was legally resident in Germany.

A court judgement rejecting his asylum application from October 2020 showed that he is said to have lied about his escape story. However, Munich city issued a toleration decision in April 2021 and granted the man a residence permit in October of the same year.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz on Saturday said the man will be deported after serving his sentence. "Anyone who does something like this must expect the harshest penalties," he said.

The first deportation flight from Germany to Afghanistan since the Taliban took power three years ago took place in August 2024. It transported 28 convicted criminals who had received deportation orders back to their home country.

Faeser emphasized after the attack in Munich that deportations to Afghanistan would continue. However, such flights are difficult to implement as they require cooperation with the Taliban, either directly or indirectly via neighbouring countries.

The Taliban expressed openness to cooperating on deportations in the wake of the attack in Munich, but demanded a consular presence in Germany in return. "We have shown our willingness to resume consular services for Afghans in Germany that cover all aspects of migration," Taliban Foreign Ministry spokesman Abdul Qahar Balkhi told dpa.

Critics have warned in the past against such talks with the Islamist Taliban, which is isolated internationally. The Taliban could benefit from deportations by using them as an opportunity to work with a Western state, they warn.

Parliamentary committee to hold special session

The internal affairs committee of the German Bundestag, or lower house of parliament, is planning to hold a special session this week to find out more about the background to the attack and the ongoing investigation.

The meeting is expected to be held on Wednesday, according to members of the committee, but the time has not yet been set.

The leaders of the parliamentary groups received initial information about the case in a telephone conference from the Interior Ministry.

"Despite the perpetrator's statement during the interrogation, the question of motive remains the focus of attention," Martina Renner, an expert on domestic policy from The Left party, said.

Due to the particular significance of the case, the Federal Prosecutor General has taken over the investigation.

[libertineangel]

The British government trained commandos in Afghanistan to fight the Taliban, refused to grant them asylum upon withdrawal because they witnessed British war crimes, and then lied about it.

UK Special Forces officers appear to have rejected every application from a former Afghan commando referred to them for sponsorship, despite the Afghan units having fought with the British on life-threatening missions against the Taliban. [...]

The Triples - so-called because their designations were CF 333 and ATF 444 - were set up, trained, and paid by UK Special Forces and supported the SAS and SBS on operations in Afghanistan. When the country fell to the Taliban in 2021, they were judged to be in grave danger of reprisal and were entitled to apply for resettlement to the UK. The rejection of their applications was controversial because they came at a time when a public inquiry in the UK was investigating allegations that Special Forces had committed war crimes on operations in Afghanistan where the Triples were present. The inquiry has the power to compel witnesses who are in the UK, but not non-UK nationals who are overseas. If resettled, former members of the Triples could be compelled by the inquiry to provide potentially significant evidence. BBC Panorama revealed earlier this year that UK Special Forces command had been given veto power over their resettlement applications and denied them asylum in Britain. The revelation caused a wave of anger among some former members of the SAS and others who served with the Afghan units. The MoD initially denied the existence of the veto, suggesting that the BBC's reporting had been inaccurate, but then-Defence Minister Andrew Murrison was later forced to tell the House of Commons the government had misled parliament in its denials.

[thatswhywelovegermany]

Persons seeking protection in Germany

About 3.1 million persons are currently living in Germany because they are seeking protection.

1.3 million (42 %) of them have asylum protection and refugee protection (protection from political persecution) based on the German constitution ("Those who are politically persecuted enjoy asylum.") and subordinate laws, subsidiary protection (e.g. from civil war) or deportation bans

1.1 million (35 %) fall under the special regulation for Ukraine refugees, a residence permit without asylum procedure

291.1 thousand (9 %) enjoy other reasons such as special deals with other states or a status as a professional expert.

276.5 thousand (9 %) are waiting for a decision on their asylum application

169.9 thousand (5 %) are obliged to leave the country because their asylum request was rejected, but most are tolerated and are not deported, e.g. because of family or missing documents

[andysouldancer]

Scandalous Betrayal 2

Those who have stood with our armed forces in combat, have helped and aided this country, deserve more than just our gratitude. But, should have our help, loyalty, support and protection for they have done for us. I think we can all agree on this can’t we ?

To their and thus our, eternal shame, the UK government, the MOD, the UK military and here, especially UK special forces – have abandoned those who worked with them, fought with them, risked for them and DIED FOR THEM AND US !

And their world is no longer safe because of their support for us.

And these are not just anyone who worked for us in Afghanistan. These are Afghan Commandos, their special forces, who worked along side our special forces.

To deign these people access to safety in the UK is a scandalous betrayal !

Because of failures in the Middle East, where else can they go ?

And this proves the point I have so often made, that if the most deserving cannot get in : there is no refugee route into this country. The doors have been shut !

And to those here who keep asking about ‘military age’ males, who risk everything in those boats ? Maybe this answers that question ?

[coochiequeens]

The dude stabbed another mirgant, who was a security guard at a place helping other migrants, then tried to pass himself off as a victim because someone made it clear he didn't pass as a woman.

By Marielena Meder February 20, 2025

A trans-identified male from South Africa is standing trial for the murder of a security guard at the asylum shelter he had been staying at. Hilton Henrico G., who was identified as a “woman” by German press, had a history of violent assault leading up to the attack and had been in Germany illegally at the time as his asylum application had been rejected years ago.

Hilton, 38, was first apprehended in May of 2024 after fleeing the scene of a brutal stabbing at a refugee accommodation on Geschwister-Scholl-Straße in Potsdam. Due to strict privacy laws, Hilton’s full name has not been released by police.

While the motive for the crime is currently unclear, the prosecution has detailed that Hilton had a clear “intent to kill,” noting his repeat, targeted stabs to the victim’s heart. According to Tagesspiegel, despite rapid assistance at the scene, the security guard, who was a Syrian migrant himself, died of his injuries before making it to hospital.

A notice advertising a gathering in honor of Anwar, the security guard stabbed by Hilton.

As previously reported by Reduxx, Hilton fled the crime scene, triggering an extensive manhunt by the Brandenburg West Police Directorate. The area around the asylum shelter was cordoned off, and police searched the nearby Sanssouci Park with the assistance of tracking dogs.

In a bizarre twist, just three hours after the manhunt began, Hilton himself contacted police to file a report that he had been misgendered at a supermarket in the neighboring district of Schöneberg. Due to a lack of communication between police dispatches, the officers who responded to the misgendering incident were unaware that Hilton was on the run for murder, and took his statement on the alleged “hate crime.”

After reporting the “transphobic incident,” Hilton was allowed to leave and continue about his day.

Later on that day, the authorities in Potsdam learned of the complaint regarding the “transphobic incident,” which provided them with clues about the area where the Hilton might be located, ultimately leading to his arrest.

The deadly attack in May of 2024 was not the first incident linking Hilton to violence. As early as February of 2023, more than a year before the crime, he allegedly attacked another person with a knife in a housing facility in Potsdam, injuring them in the arm. This incident, which is also part of the current legal proceedings, was classified as dangerous bodily harm. Hilton was reportedly already known to authorities as a potential risk at that time.

Investigations by the Potsdamer Neueste Nachrichten (PNN) further revealed that Hilton had attracted attention in several refugee shelters due to threats and “psychological abnormalities.” Fellow residents and staff reported repeated conflicts, which led to him being transferred between facilities multiple times.

Hilton arrived in Germany from South Africa in 2018, applying under an asylum claim that was rejected by May of 2021. Despite appealing the rejection, the Administrative Court in Cottbus upheld the decision and declared him “subject to enforceable deportation.” Matthias Vogt, a court spokesperson, told BILD: “Since May 2021, [Hilton] has been immediately deportable as we denied his urgent request against the rejection of his asylum application.”

The responsibility for facilitating Hilton’s deportation lay with the Potsdam Foreigners’ Office, supported by the Central Foreigners’ Authority (ZABH) in Eisenhüttenstadt. The ZABH is now accusing the city of Potsdam of failing to report Hilton’s location to them so they could ensure he was detained and deported.

The incident has now resulted in tension between the different authorities, all of whom are accusing one another of being responsible for the failures that resulted in Hilton being able to avoid deportation and commit the stabbing.

Hilton’s case has also sparked a broader political debate, with politicians accusing the German government of having “egregious administrative failure” and “a lack of political will to enforce the law at times.”

The trial at the Potsdam Regional Court is expected to last several weeks and aims to shed light on the circumstances of the crime as well as the failings of local authorities. Hilton faces a sentence ranging from at least five years to life imprisonment, though he denies ever having committed the crime.

Despite the fact that Hilton has not changed his legal sex, several media outlets, such as B.Z. Berlin and Tagesspiegel, have referred to him as a “woman” standing trial for manslaughter.

[sethshead]

Interesting. Nowhere is it mentioned how the world betrayed Bloch in his time of need. He returned to the French army as an officer during the Second World War, but after the collaborationist Vichy regime capitulated to Germany, the US rejected his application for asylum.

Unlike most Jews the Vichy regime allowed him to retain his teaching posts, but its antisemitism forced Bloch to resign as editor of prestigious journals. In the end, it was Vichy’s Milice that arrested him and handed him over to the Gestapo for interrogation, torture, and execution.

Let France never celebrate Marc Bloch as a hero without being reminded of the hand France played in his persecution and murder.