Churches as safe havens: How communities protect refugees from deportation | DW Documentary
For more than 40 years, German churches have been offering refugees church asylum. But this is not a legal right. And the practice is increasingly being called into question by German authorities.As the country’s previously welcoming refugee policy undergoes major change, the state's tolerance for church asylum is waning.
Anja is someone who has felt this shift. A pastor in a free church, she grants church asylum to people in her congregation who are threatened with deportation. How does she handle the difficult balancing act between extending charity, and obedience to the law?
The state of Bremen is considered a stronghold of church asylum: of almost 2,400 cases nationwide, 200 were registered here in 2024. Ironically, it was here in this liberal Hanseatic city that a scandal erupted during Advent last year: the Bremen Migration Office instructed police officers to remove a 25-year-old Somali man from church asylum for deportation to Finland, his first point of entry into the EU.
But a chain of protesters prevented officers from entering the Bremen Zion Community Center. The consequences of the failed deportation: public controversy, unsettled communities, disgruntled church leaders, and angry authorities.
The film shows what church asylum means in concrete terms, through the stories of people currently living in church asylum, as well as those protected by the church in the past who remain closely connected to the community to this day.
Pastor Anja’s work also involves interaction with the authorities. As well as the practical questions of everyday life, from food to language lessons. After all, it takes an enormous effort for a community to accommodate, feed, and care for people for months on end.
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