Unfortunately, religion is a reason for many people to leave their homeland and apply for asylum in Germany. When it comes to religious persecution, most people think of religious minorities threatened by the majority in their countries. In the current refugee crisis, these are mainly Jesids and Christians fleeing from predominantly Islamic countries.
But one group is often completely ignored in the media: the atheists. In many religions (e. g. in Islam) apostasy is considered a punishable offence. And even those who do not belong to any religious community from birth are unfortunately all too often persecuted as “infidels”.
Unfortunately, the problems of these people are often overlooked in the turmoil of the many religious wars. In addition, discrimination on the basis of atheistic beliefs usually takes place in the private sphere and therefore rarely reaches the public.
Unfortunately, this often leads to the conviction even among officials of the foreigners authority that people without religion could not suffer religious persecution at all, although the EU directive of 2004 explicitly defines “religious persecution” as “non-theistic and atheistic beliefs”.
For this reason, we launched the “Atheist Refugee Refief” in 2017. We want to be the point of contact for refugees and asylum seekers who are persecuted or threatened on the basis of their atheistic or religious-critical beliefs.
We are committed to ensure that the problems of these people are taken seriously and that they receive legitimate asylum.
