Fair Treatment

The pope called on Germany to respect the rights of asylum seekers, in particular Christians, who have fled their countries fearing persecution, Germany's new ambassador to the Vatican said earlier this week.

"The Holy See calls on the competent authorities not to deport foreign Christians persecuted for their faith in their home states," Germany's new ambassador to the Vatican, Hans Henning Horstmann, told the Ansa news agency.

According to a summary of the meeting between Benedict XVI and Horstmann published by the Vatican, the pope "recalled that Germany has become a new homeland for many people threatened in their countries of origin for religious and political reasons" and "suggested that the right to asylum should be guaranteed by law" in Germany.

Germany's refugee record

Analysts said Benedict XVI was referring to a number of recent reports by German civil rights groups criticizing Berlin's record on asylum seekers.

One such document published by the Pro Asyl group, "Germany, World Champion for Expulsions," said Germany had expelled 40,000 asylum seekers, most of them from Kosovo, Afghanistan and Iraq, during the past three years.

According to Pro Asyl, some 200,000 people in Germany live in a sort of grey area, in which their legal status is unclear. Their presence is ''tolerated'' by the authorities, but they do not have residence permits and are thus constantly at risk of being deported.

Over 120,000 immigrants with such undefined legal status have lived in Germany for more than five years, Pro Asyl said on its Web site. Many are refugees of wars who were not granted asylum, but could not be deported, and have now integrated into Germany society, creating ties with the community.

Germany's immigration rules

In Germany, residence permits are granted to asylum seeker if they cannot leave Germany within 18 months of arriving ''through no fault of their own," according to the interior ministry. However, the government has cracked down on immigrants who they see as ''hindering their return and having deceived the authorities.''

Germany's first immigration law came into power in Jan. 2005. It was intended to give immigrants more rights. Pro Asyl argued that 'the act's humanitarian goals had been missed "almost completely."

"For the people concerned this means they still do not have a safe prospect in Germany,'' Pro Asyl stated.