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Written by Administrator
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Wednesday, 03 August 2005 |
 Hundreds, if not thousands of want-to-be pilgrims from
developping countries are denied visa by German authorities and will
not be able to travel to Cologne as planned. In fact, Germany is - by
its own visa practices - excluding poor youth from the countryside to
travel to Germany to participate in WYD.
In one smaller south German diocese alone, Freiburg, about 80 to 100
African youth from countries like Nigeria, Cameroun and Ivory Coast
wanted to come as guests to the decentralized "week of encounters"..
Also note our other reports on this affair:
Church protests and understands Govt. Stand on Visa
600 disappointed in Manila
Big Manila groups cannot come to worship
Church backs Government on Visa
"We have stayed to Worship Him"
A 30-member-group from the Ivory-Coast youth could not come because
of "visa problems". Therefore, the parish of Meßkirch had to cancel a special day of
festivities (Dekanatstag) it had wanted to organize for the pilgrims.
A 15-member-group of pilgrims were denied visa in Cameroun, the
inviting Kolping Familiy in Arnsberg, North Rhine Westfalia. According
to their would-be German host, Hubertus Stuhldreie, they had
fulfilled all the preconditions, but were not on a list that the German
embassy in Yaounde and the Catholic church in the Ivory coast had
agreed upon. The agreement had reportedly said that only 3 participants
from each Ivory-Coast diocese were allowed to go to Cologne.
WYD has a special agreement with the German Department of Foreign
Affairs about a simplified visa procedure. As soon as a pilgrim has
paid the fees and has pressed the confimation button on WYD's web page,
German authorities accept this as an invitation to Germany which is
necessary for citizens of many countries.
Still, they would need a letter of recommendation with the signature of a bishop in their home country.
But German catholic youth groups say their counterparts who wanted to
come to Germany were confronted with additional preconditions by German
embassies in their countries.
Christian Schärtl, head of the International Catholic Movement of Youth
from the Countryside and Young Peasants (MIJARC) is very concerned that
getting a visa is becoming harder and harder for youth from developping
countries. The German Catholic Peasant Youth had invited a group of
pilgrims from Togo to World Youth day, but they were confronted with
unfulfillable demands at the German embassy of their country. Only
youth with a bank account or a labour contract would be allowed to
leave for Germany, they were told - impossible conditions.
But Rolf Ankermann, a speaker at the German foreign ministry, told
pulitzer.de that such preconditions were "normal". They were used
to check for the inclination of travellers to return to their home
country. Factually, Germany is excluding young and poor people from the
countryside from WYD 2005 if the rule was applied in all countries
requiring visa.
At WYD 2002 in Toronto, the Canadian government had refused 6,000 visa,
but 2,300 managed to use the travel to WYD for "illegal immigration",
German Catholic News Agency KNA wrote on Aug. 2. .
German foreign minister Joseph Fischer has been under fire in
parliament for allegedly having not sufficiently limited illegal
immigration from countries like Ukraine in recent years. This might be
a reason for higher awareness and tighter rules in his embassies.
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Last Updated ( Wednesday, 17 August 2005 )
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