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EKD Council Chair Annette Kurschus: "Populist smokescreen"
Photo: Matthias Rietschel / dpa
In an interview with the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, the chairwoman of the Council of the Evangelical Church in Germany, Annette Kurschus, spoke out in favour of "significantly more legal access routes to Europe". The fixing of a certain upper limit is a "populist smokescreen" because it is incompatible with the Basic Law and the Geneva Refugee Convention. In Germany, she believes that the limit of reception capacities for refugees is "far from being reached".
"From a Christian point of view, human destinies cannot be pinned down to a maximum number," Kurschus told the newspaper. From a Christian point of view, the reception of refugees finds "its limit where self-abandonment occurs," said the theologian. I don't think we've reached that limit yet."
Complaints from municipalities about overload must be listened to, the EKD Council Chairwoman continued. However, this complaint was not heard from the church volunteers. "Basically, our rich country should be able to take in even more people who are fleeing war and various hardships from their homeland and seeking refuge with us," Kurschus said. "I think the thesis that every additional refugee gives the right-wing extremists a further boost is too short-sighted."
Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) recently struck a tougher tone in asylum policy in an interview with SPIEGEL: "We must finally deport on a large scale those who have no right to stay in Germany." The Federal Cabinet approved a draft law to this effect this week. According to a survey conducted by the opinion research institute Civey for SPIEGEL, 86 percent of Germans agree with the chancellor's statement.
Kurschus also defended the church's commitment to sea rescue. "I continue to stand by it," said the EKD Council Chairwoman. "We don't stand idly by while people drown in the Mediterranean."
pbe/AFP