Bonn Vote OKs Strict Curbs on Asylum-Seekers

German lawmakers approved a controversial new asylum law Wednesday to halt the costly annual influx of nearly half a million foreigners, effectively slamming shut the industrialized world’s last open door for economic refugees.

About 10,000 angry protesters blockaded the seat of government in Bonn, throwing rocks, bottles and paint-filled balloons at legislators trying to reach the Bundestag building on the banks of the Rhine.

Police used helicopters and boats to ferry the parliamentary deputies to and from the Bundestag, turned into a veritable fortress as thousands of riot troops surrounded the government quarter to hold back the jeering leftists who organized the blockade to show “what it feels like to be shut out.”

Voting 521 to 132 with one abstention to bar all asylum-seekers who aren’t fleeing political persecution or war, the Bundestag rejected a generous asylum policy adopted more than 40 years ago in atonement for the crimes of the Third Reich.

“Deportation is murder!” protesters shouted outside. Speakers during the daylong rally also referred to Germany’s Nazi past, arguing that the country has a moral obligation to maintain an open-door policy.

The law is expected to be approved by the Parliament’s upper house, the Bundesrat, on Friday. If approved, it will take effect July 1.

By sharply reducing the number of asylum-seekers, German authorities also hope to quell a deadly surge of right-wing violence by young neo-Nazis and skinheads who target the foreigners they consider freeloaders.

During the emotional 12-hour Bundestag debate, members of the lower house frequently noted that Germany currently shelters about two-thirds of all Europe’s migrants, including the majority of war refugees from the former Yugoslav federation.

“No one wants to re-erect borders fortified with walls and barbed wire and land mines,” said Hans-Ulrich Klose, faction leader of the opposition Social Democrats.

“The others must do more,” he said, urging the United States, Japan and Western European neighbors to share the burden of supporting democratic and economic reforms in the former East Bloc to discourage mass migration.

Chancellor Helmut Kohl did not speak on the bill, which brings Germany into line with Geneva Convention rules on granting asylum. International law generally permits host countries to declare various nations free of persecution, automatically disqualifying any nationals seeking asylum.

The most vehement criticism of Germany’s new law was over abolishing the practice of granting all asylum-seekers sanctuary while deciding their individual cases.

“A refugee will have barely a chance in the future to legally reach Germany and apply for asylum,” said Herbert Leuninger, head of the Frankfurt-based lobbying group Pro-Asyl.

The new law makes it impossible for asylum-seekers to enter Germany via a third country if the latter recognizes political refugees and is therefore itself considered a haven.

This “third state provision” is expected to virtually shut out the hordes of Romanians and other migrants who have been fleeing poverty in Eastern Europe since the opening of the Iron Curtain.

Most cross via the Polish border; Poland has tentatively agreed to let Germany send back 10,000 non-Polish refugees this year, with Germany paying the bill to deport them.

Romanians, particularly Gypsies, made up the largest contingent among the 438,000 asylum-seekers who poured into Germany last year; 161,320 more have arrived so far this year.

Yet fewer than 5% of all applicants will ultimately qualify for asylum, with the rest unable to prove political persecution.

Until now, Germany has been obligated under its constitution to consider each case individually and to fully support all applicants until their cases are decided, no matter how blatantly fraudulent.

With a backlog in the hundreds of thousands, the adjudication process typically has taken months and often years. The Interior Ministry estimates that each asylum-seeker costs the government $10,000 per year.

In the face of a recession, the skyrocketing costs of German unification and a critical housing shortage, public resentment has grown considerably over the economic refugees’ taking advantage of the liberal asylum policy.

A recent survey of more than 1,000 Germans found 68% in favor of the new asylum law and 24% opposed.

The asylum issue and its undercurrents of racism have fueled Germany’s radical right not only in the streets but in organized politics as well. The far-right Republican Party, led by an SS (Nazi elite force) veteran, already has made inroads in state and local politics and is widely expected to clear the 5% hurdle needed to enter the Bundestag when national elections are held next year.

A Christian Democratic deputy defected to the Republicans on Tuesday, thereby becoming the first extreme right-winger in Parliament since the early postwar years.

Rudolf Krause, an eastern German veterinarian, had been targeted for expulsion by the Christian Democrats in a continuing investigation of his purported attempts to start a far-right “party within the party.”

No skinheads or neo-Nazis turned out for Wednesday’s demonstrations in Bonn, which were dominated by a few thousand black-clad anarchists who led futile attempts to storm the police barricades around the government quarter.

Chanting “We are one people”--the slogan of German unification--clusters of protesters shoved, punched and spat upon politicians, journalists and civil servants who crossed their lines.

Police said 14 officers and “a few” demonstrators were slightly injured, and eight people were arrested and released.

Times researcher Ulrich Seibert contributed to this report.