April 2016 10:45 VG 18. K...5‌ Public Hearing Burhan R. Legal counsel Lawyer D. Judge P. as sole presiding judge Federal Republic of Germany represented by the Federal Ministry of the Interior, represented by the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees Asylum law – principal proceedings
In the courtroom Attorney: Ms. Kupfer, present here, is a social worker who has voluntarily chaperond my client and can provide us information today about his wellbeing and behaviour. Judge: You must decide yourself if you want to have her as a witness. Attorney: Yes. Judge: Ms. Kupfer, you must leave the courtroom now, so that your statements are not influenced by what you might hear here beforehand. Ms. Kupfer leaves the courtroom. Judge (dictating): Present at 11.11 are the plaintiff personally and his attorney Ms. F. Ms. D and Ms. M are present for the defence. Mr. P is here as an interpreter from the Dari
language. Attorney: We haven’t received any amendment of age from the authorities. BAMF (Federal Department for Migrants and Refugees) won’t correct the age either. If they do, it will be at the hearing. That won’t be for a very long time. That is why we are here. I don’t do this with every client, but in this case it was important to me. I wanted you to see the plaintiff for yourself. Look how young he is. Judge: A young man can look like an adolescent. And his birth certificate cannot be verified. I have worked in Asylum Law for a long time, including cases from Afghanistan. There is no civil register there. Attorney: The Registry Office hasn’t existed for so long in Germany either. Furthermore, it is not the fault of the plaintiff. It is the fault of the country itself. He only has this birth certificate. And he has presented it. I think that should be acknowledged! Judge: Yes, he made an effort to present the documents. But this birth certificate doesn’t prove anything. Maybe it’s true, maybe it isn’t. Attorney: Then let’s act as if it’s not there. Look at the boy. Judge: I can’t say anything. Either there are other documents that prove the age, or not. Attorney: We are in an emergency.
Judge: He is in an emergency, not us and not I. Judge to Ms. D and Ms. M: What do you think? Ms. D: I haven’t the slightest idea. Attorney: But we must try to enter a dialogue here. Ms. D: I don’t think that today’s appointment serves as an opportunity to determine a new age. Attorney: I disagree, I think that is exactly what it serves for. My second question is, if he was informed about the medical examination. It isn’t evident from the record. Judge: Have you applied for one? Attorney: The results of such examinations are also highly questionable. Judge: But then we at least have the X-rays. What can I say? I don’t know what a typical Hazara of 16 or 17 looks like. Judge to Ms. D and Ms. M: Have you seen Hazara before? Or how do you make the expert assessment? Ms. D: I have to know the people. And I value the work of my colleagues. We have a supervisor we can compare notes with. I assume that everything in his case
went as normal. Attorney: But you are going on feeling. Ms. D: Feeling? I wouldn’t describe our qualified work that way. Attorney: You speak to the young people for a short time with the help of an interpreter. It is surely not possible to determine an age so quickly. Judge: I would suggest he try it by the Federal Office. New game, new luck, so to speak. Attorney: But this is about the welfare of a child. Judge: If he is in fact a child. The situation at BAMF has relaxed. The number of Asylum applications has gone down. Attorney: Unfortunately I can’t confirm that. I am receiving decisions from BAMF from December 2015. They were three months being delivered. I would be interested to ask Ms. Kupfer. How he seems, what he says. She’s a specialist. Ms. D: I don’t find that sensible, I find it problematic. She has a personal and subjective view of the case. Attorney: I see this as an isolated case. I don’t do this with every client.
Ms. D: It’s about his rights, of course, but… but it will get around. We are already overloaded! Would our colleagues have to come here all the time then? Judge: I can put it this way... Ms. D: We are unwilling. We don’t see it as practicable. Judge to Ms. D and Ms. M: Do you have questions? Ms. M: How do you explain that you initially gave the incorrect date of birth? The year 2011. In the birth certificate it says 1999. Plaintiff: When I was there, I got a form to fill out. I didn’t know what I was supposed to do with it. There were a lot of Afghan boys there. One filled out the form for me. He gave the year 2001. Judge: How did you later get your birth certificate? Plaintiff: It was sent to me. Through my family. Judge: Who do you have contact with? Plaintiff: With the mother. Judge: You can guess why I asked. He indicated initially that he had no contact to his mother. At that time he had already been in Germany for two months.
Ms. M.: And what age did he say he was at the questioning at the clearing house in Wupperstraße? Plaintiff: I wanted to tell the truth, that I was born in 1999. But the boy told me that I should stick to one date, or I would have problems. Interpreter: There are often mistakes, because people incorrectly convert dates from the Persian calendar into the Gregorian. Attorney: Can I ask Ms. D and Ms. M something? Would there have been a difference in the determination of the age if he had initially given his correct year of birth? Judge: The issue for me is this: what do I believe of what he says, and what do I not. He made himself two years younger. That’s the truth. It doesn’t matter how he came to do it. Attorney: I would like to speak with my client. Judge (dictating): The session is interrupted at 12.18. The plaintiff and the attorney leave the courtroom. The judge opens the window. At 12.30 the plaintiff, attorney and Ms. Kupfer come back into the courtroom. The judge closes the window and sits on his chair. Attorney: I withdraw the complaint.
Judge (dictating): The representative of the plaintiff declares with the agreement of the plaintiff: “I withdraw the complaint.� Judge: The proceeding is discontinued.
https://refugeeslibrary.wordpress.com/
2016