Home  General News Travel blockades by Germany no "singular cases"
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Travel blockades by Germany no "singular cases" |
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Written by Administrator
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Monday, 08 August 2005 |
Denial of visa for pilgrims by the German embassies are no
"singular cases" as the wording of the German foreign ministry and the
WYD spokesperson puts it. Pulitzer.de has already learned of around
1,000 pilgrims from developing countries who were not allowed to enter,
and the number ist rising. Members of the catholic church have
expressed they understand that the German state had to protect against
illegal immigration.
A member of a 616 persons strong group (other sources say
598) from the Philippines country has informed us that each and
every of the 616 was denied the
visa by the embassy. They were to be greeted by parishes in the diocese
of Limburg. Another 188 members strong group from the Philippines
was not let in, according to news from the German diocese of Erfurt. In
addition, smaller groups from Cameroun and Nigeria were
reportedly denied the necessary travel documents.
Foreign-Ministry spokesperson Rolf Ankermann has told us that the
number of denied visa was "the usual quota as with other visa
applications, namely eight to 12 procent". Since according to WYD
nine percent of the 372,000 registered pilgrims do need a visa, the
quota would mean that between around 2,700 and 4.000 would-be
pilgrims are not allowed to enter the country.
In an e-mail to pulitzer.de, one of the pilgrims, who had been preparing the visa application since the end of 2004, wrote:
"We're still currently waiting for an appeal tomorrow (aug. 8, 2005)
this would mean, we would probably miss attending the days of encounter
if not the whole wyd
event. Things may look grim for our group... but as the Lord say...
"For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in
the midst of them." So we're entrusting everything to the Lord with
bountiful prayers. God Bless and more power."
On August 9, the appeal (remonstration) has not been granted. The
catholic bureau chief in Berlin, Karl Jüsten (the representative
of the church at the German government) has indicated that the foreign
ministry suspects the Manila group of 600 to be organised for illegal
immigration.
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Last Updated ( Thursday, 11 August 2005 )
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