Church-asylum in Munich: "In the moment we don't have a chance"

Separatist from India living for years in the basement of a church - now has been arrested Surinder Pal Singh an India citizen who live for 3 years in an asylum of the church of St. Joachim in Munich has now been arrested in L”rrach. Singh now is kept in deportation-arrest and deportation is only a question of time. "That is exactly what we wanted to avoid" is the comment of Ulrich Bach, the catholic preacher of the St. Joachims-church.

Singh was member of the "All India Sikh Student Federation" and escaped 1990 illegal to Germany. His application for asylum was rejected 1994. Although an medical expertise testified signs of torture which might have been result of time of arrest in India the court in Ansbach judged the testimony of the Internist to be a subjective opinion of the doctor. As result of this judgment the church granted Singh asylum.

The extended stay of Mr. Singh in the cellar of the church had been rising up difficulties, as Mr. Bach states. The council of the church asked Sing to leave the country by himself. "There is no way besides Mr. Beckstein, the Bavarian Minister of internal affairs." Explains the preacher thinking of the numerous correspondence between the Bavarian Ministry and the church. So it seems in a kind of shortminded-reaction Mr. Singh left the church and headed for France and was arrested as result of this attempt.

Friendly distance
The engagement of the bishops-office in this case is to be valued with "friendly distance" as long as they were not involved themselves in the case. Discussions with the responsible head did not help, although the bishops claim to demand for single-case-justice. "The complete time we have doubts in the regularity of a such trial we side with the protectors of refugees. We are not able to review a judge nor can we speak own judgment, but this does not pass without our attention."

Within the church-community the solidarity with Mr. Singh was very limited. This is also reason that church- asylum will not be granted once more. Among the community the most remained without interest and those few who bothered about the case had to carry thus more strong pressure. To these few count Johannes Berhard and his wife who both took care of Mr. Singh. The retired Doctor of Physics regrets that a family is split by the deportation. "Mr. Singh is married with a young Afghani woman that bears temporary stay-permission as result of the chaotic situation in her native country but has no permission to enter India. They have together a son and a second baby is expected soon." The marriage by Islamic right was not acknowledged by the German authorities as a fault that documents from Singhïs town of birth Punjab were missing. Though supported by the German Embassy in New Delhi it was not possible to receive the documents. So at the very moment it seems not possible to support Mr. Singh in any way.