Instructions for the asylum hearing at the Budesamt
(please, read this by all means in your native language before the hearing)
mho: My note -- this information is quite old (from 1993) The handout from the Protestant advice bureau seems to be more current.
You are invited to a hearing about your asylum case, because the authorities want to find out whether you personally really were politically persecuted.
In other words, they consider you to be politically persecuted if you had really been persued by the government or similar authorities because of your race, religion, nationality, belonging to some social group, your political convictions, or if you have to fear such persecution.
In Germany you are not obliged to prove such persecution, but you must make a statement which is logical and understandable, free of contradictions, which enables the authorities to believe your personal fate. This approach is supposed to help you, because usually it is impossible for you to prove the political persecution, but it could also be dangerous for you if there are contradictions or "lies" in your statement, it may happen that you would not be believed at all! Do not allow any of your fellow countrymen or other "advisors" to force you to give false interpretation of certain important facts instead of saying the truth. Later, when the truth is discovered, you would be hardly believed by anyone. No one can "lie" so smoothly that he could go on doing this even when he is in a situation of being questioned. Of course, you have the right not to tell things which could cause a danger for you or other people. Just explain that and say why. But do not say anything which is not true. Neitgher tell things you do not know exactly as "for sure". The German authorities have got many ways and means to f ind out any kind of necessary information from abroad dealing also with the things that had happened in the past. And because the attitude towards political refugees is not positive in Germany, an attempt would be made to construct a "lie" from any inaccuracy on your side.
That is why, please, tell everything that has happened to you or that you have to fear. It is not sufficient, for instance, to simply inform about your membership in a certain minority. As a rule, you have to describe the persecution that you personally experienced in order to be accepted as a refugee.
Please, realise that facts and figures are very relevant for Germans: You must have answers to questions like "Who?", "Where?", "What?", "How?", "Why?", "For how long?" Please avoid any false shame.
Even I there is something embarrassing for you and the authorities do not seem very friendly, you must still tell them everything that has happened or everything that you are so much frightened about. In this situation just imagine that you are telling a good friend of yours about everything that happened to you since the beginning (which may be a very long time ago) of persecution. Even if a person listening to you is far from being your good friend, such a "trick" may help you do things you have to do: tell everything lively and comprehensibly.
It may happen that before the hearing you would be asked about your documents or you would be checked through. Herewith an attempt is being made from the side of the German authorities to find out, how you came to Germany. It may also happen that they would take your identification card, passport or other documents. In that case demand fotocopies of all those documents by all means. You have the right to claim for that.
Anyway, to begin with, you will be asked about the way you came to Germany. In case you came to Germany by landway, the danger is especially great for you to be sent back to the country via which you entered Germany. All the countries neighbouring German are considered to be "safe countries" for refugees.
By law you are also obliged to make truthful statements about how you appeared in Germany. No one is allowed to give you any other advices than to tell the truth. When nevertheless you yourself or the authorities do not know via which "safe country" you came here, there is not then such a country where you could be sent back to!
In this case, you should try to consult a lawyer, or a social advisor or an assistant for refugees.
And now as far as the reasons for your refugee-status are concerned: here you must tell really everything that had happened to you at home or that you fear so much. If you or your lawyer have filed in written form the reasons for your asylum request, you have to read it by all means again before the hearing. Do not allow anyone to force you to admit that the paper already contains all the reasons for you to seek asylum. The official at the Federal Office must give you an opportunity to say everything (new things as well) you want to say. Every paper written before the hearing serves only as preparatory material for the hearing itself!
Avoid contradictions. Insist – firmly, if necessary – on being allowed to declare everything that you want to. Insist also that everything you have said should be written down. It happens very often that you are only asked questions. If though these questions do not cover everything you want to say, you must insist on being given an opportunity to you to make your statement in a form of an uniterrupted story (in a context).
At the hearing – if necessary – an official interpret will be present. He has to translate everything you have said into German, and then he has to re-translate everything that was written from German back into your native language.
As a rule, the official at the hearing does not speak your native language. In this case the official gets your statements with the help of an interpreter. He then speaks them into a dictaphone. After the hearing, the dictated report is copied and re-translated to you hafter some waiting period.
It often happens with the following comments: "And here is exactly written what you have just said about …" Under no circumstances let such things happen, because you have to confirm whether or not everything was written down correctly. Therefore everything has to be re-translated word by word to you!
Insist on such sentences being deleted if you did not say them. In any case, explain that you would not sign the protocol without such sentences having been deleted, because a protocol should only repeat what you have really said and not what the authorities would like you to have said.
When you notice that the protocol is not later given to you to be signed, insist by all means on the changes being put down the way you want them to be put.
You also have the right to get everything written down exactly the way you have said it. Often the mistakes are made while translating, dictating or while copying the dictated text.
For example: You said, for instance, that you had left your country on 10 January. But in the protocol it is finally written 01 January. Take care that such sort of mistakes are corrected. Do not accept that, in the above given example, the following statement later appears in the protocol: "While reading the report, the applicant corrected the date." Actually, the date was not "corrected" but rather erroneously understood, translated or put down. Such sort of so-called "corrections" are often used by the authorities to later reject an application because of the supposed "contradictions"!
4. After the hearing
This "memory report" must be immediately handed to your lawyer or assistant, so that he can undertake the necessary steps.
I wish you success at the hearing. Do not be afraid. If you follow all the advices given a bovre, nothing will go wrong. At least, you can be sure of having had a fair hearing.
September 1993
Translation by Olga Glöde FAX 02151 69835