There's a court case brewing in Bavaria, and the Munich High Court is supposed to render a verdict today (Thursday).
The situation? Church asylum being legal.
For a number of years....maybe going back several decades.....the churches in Bavaria (both Catholic and Protestant) have maintained that they have a ethical and somewhat legal ability to declare someone for asylum.....meaning they do it....not the government. Up until now....no one challenged them on it. Well....about two years ago....the Bavarians said 'no'....it's not legal.
How this came up? Well....a Nigerian came into Germany from Italy (Nov 2014). Because he signed in there for asylum....by EU rules, he has to stay there and complete the process. If he wanted to move to Germany after becoming an Italian....that would be legal (no one argues over that part of the EU rules). But where you start a migration/asylum process....there, you must complete it.
This guy's application to the Germans? Failure....because of the application already existing in Italy. To stop this deportation in the fall of 2016....he went to the Catholic Church at St. Jacob in Freising. The church stood by the guy, and the local authorities stopped the deportation for a while.
How big a deal is this? BR tells the entire story on this and says 357 cases of church asylum existed in Bavaria for 2017. Nationwide? Roughly 700.
The problem I see is that once this angle is perfected and advertised.....tens of thousands per year would wander into Germany.....claim church asylum, and avoid any legal framework (you wouldn't even need the BamF folks to do evaluations anymore or paperwork). Even the EU would likely say that this is pretty stupid, if allowed to continue. Non-church folks in Germany would be all negative about this idea.
The other question here....who gave the church such powers? And if it's not under any control....couldn't you just raise up a 10-member church....establish yourself in an old gas-station....appoint yourself a minister, and just start handing out asylum slips to anyone who walks in and donates 1,000 Euro to the church?
UPDATE: Well....the court rendered its verdict in the last hour. The churches have no legal standing on migration, immigration or asylum. The law is the law. So any attempt to validate or suggest they hand out asylum, has effectively ended. The churches? Some shock. Legal experts? No real shock apparently, they expected the outcome.
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