Vietnam/Germany: A 1993 treaty according to the terms of which Germany will return to Vietnam any Vietnamese who applies for refugee status in Germany

On 15 December 2000 an official at the Embassy of Germany in Ottawa stated that she was not aware of any repatriation treaty signed between Germany and Vietnam in 1993, but that according to the terms of a 1995 treaty between the two countries, Vietnamese living in Germany illegally were to return to Vietnam. The official added that the text of the treaty did not indicate that Germany would no longer accept any Vietnamese refugees. For more information on that treaty please see below.

A 7 January 1994 IPS article on refugee procedures in The Netherlands quotes the director of a Dutch church organization, INLIA, which works with refugees, as referring to a "German-Vietnamese repatriation agreement of June 1992, [according to which] Vietnam insists on voluntary repatriation and often refuses to accept countrymen who were forced to return to their native country." The June 1992 agreement was also mentioned in a 29 June 1999 VNA news dispatch reporting that Germany and Vietnam had signed an agreement in Hanoi on 28 June 1999 according to which the German and Vietnamese governments would work together to facilitate the return to Vietnam of Vietnamese who had been living in Germany. Under the programme, Vietnamese returnees from Germany would be provided with "information, consultation, financial aid, and vocational training to help them set up production establishments and businesses for re-integrating into the community." According to the VNA dispatch, the 28 June 1999 agreement was "on the basis of" the June 1992 agreement (ibid.).

Press reports indicate that in 1995 Germany and Vietnam signed an agreement to return to Vietnam 40,000 Vietnamese who were in Germany illegally (AFP 15, 17, 21 May 2000). On 17 May 1996 Germany filed an official protest to the Vietnamese government, alleging that Vietnam was not doing its part to implement the 1995 agreement. A German spokesperson said that to date no illegal Vietnamese immigrants had been repatriated from Germany, "although 65 Vietnamese who had committed various offences had been deported since that date" (AFP 17 May 1996).

An AP news article of 17 September 1996 reported that "239 illegal immigrants" had been deported to Vietnam from Germany.

In addition, on 17 September 1996 "a state court in Kassel ruled that Catholic Vietnamese do not suffer religious persecution as a group in their homeland and so have no right to asylum in Germany." (AP 17 Sept. 1996)

Information on a 1995 agreement between Germany and Vietnam regarding the repatriation from Germany of Vietnamese can be found in World Refugee Survey, available in Regional Documentation Centres and in the REFWORLD database.

Information on asylum-seekers in Germany, including from Vietnam, can be found in Report on Asylum Procedures: Overview of Policies and Practices in IGC Participating States, available at Regional Documentation Centres; and also in World Refugee Survey.

This Response was prepared after researching publicly accessible information currently available to the Research Directorate within time constraints. This Response is not, and does not purport to be, conclusive as to the merit of any particular claim to refugee status or asylum.

References

Agence France Presse (AFP). 21 May 1996. "Vietnam Calls for Talks with Germany over Repatriations." (NEXIS)

_____. 17 May 1996. "Germany Protests to Vietnam on Slow Repatriations." (NEXIS)

_____. 15 May 1996. "More Vietnamese Murdered in Berlin Gang Warfare." (NEXIS)

Associated Press (AP). 17 September 1996. "290 Catholic Vietnamese Deported." (NEXIS)

Embassy of Germany, Ottawa. 15 December 2000. Telephone message.

Inter Press Service (IPS). 7 January 1994. Guido de Bruin. "Vietnam-Netherlands: Repatriation Deal Worries Asylum Seekers. (NEXIS)

VNA News Agency [Hanoi, in English]. 29 June 1999. "Vietnam, Germany Sign Agreement Supporting Returnees." (BBC Summary 2 July 1999/NEXIS)