on the decision of the Koblenz Administrative Court regarding “ethnic profiling”

The Initiative of Black People in Germany
states: “The decision of the Administrative Court in Koblenz violates not only Article 3, Paragraph 1 of the German Basic Law, which states: ‘All people are equal before the law,’ but also Paragraph 3 of the same article: ‘No one may be disadvantaged or favored because of their sex, descent, race, language, homeland and origin, faith, or religious or political opinions. No one may be disadvantaged because of their disability.’” For some time now, Black people have repeatedly complained about targeted identity checks at train stations, airports, and other public places, even those not located near borders. The actions of the federal and local police have consistently been described as “racial profiling.” Just as regularly, the authorities have denied this practice, citing the permissible “suspicion-independent checks.” However, checks based on racist attributions are the opposite of “suspicion-independent” – they are based on a general suspicion towards Black people, which the Koblenz Administrative Court has now judicially legitimized/confirmed.
www.isdonline.de

The Federal Anti-Discrimination Agency (ADS)
stated, "The fact that the court describes police identity checks based on skin color as a minor intrusion is, in our view, out of touch with reality," said ADS Director Christine Lüders on Thursday in Berlin after reviewing the court's reasoning. "It has serious consequences for social cohesion in Germany and our efforts to prevent discrimination when the police check people based on their skin color," Lüders said. Those affected repeatedly express to the ADS how distressing it is for them to be publicly associated with criminal behavior. (...) The ADS has repeatedly contacted the Federal Police regarding such complaints. As recently as October, they received assurances that ethnicity plays no role in entry and exit checks at the airport, citing the Schengen Borders Code. According to Article 6 of this code, discrimination on the grounds of ethnic origin is prohibited when conducting such checks.
www.ads.bund.de

The Berlin-Brandenburg Migration Council stated
, “This ruling is not only a license for the German police to continue their racist checks unhindered, it also provides them with a legal basis that officers can invoke in case of doubt (such as a lawsuit).” Angelina Weinbender of the Berlin-Brandenburg Migration Council added, “Furthermore, it fosters and intensifies racist thought patterns within the police and the white German majority society. The Koblenz case clearly demonstrates once again that racist attitudes can only flourish on the basis of institutions, laws, court rulings, and supposedly scientific texts.”

The Rhineland-Palatinate Asylum Working Group
: “In our work with refugees, we repeatedly encounter refugees who are checked by the Federal Police on trains. Currently, it is primarily young Afghans traveling from Saarbrücken into Rhineland-Palatinate who are increasingly being ‘taken off the trains.’ According to the Federal Police’s job description, it seems that wherever checks are carried out, the line is crossed. Skin color, appearance, and age of those checked appear to be used as grounds for these checks. We consider it highly problematic when certain groups of people are targeted based on external characteristics.”
www.asyl-rlp.org

German Institute for Human Rights
: “While the Federal Police Act authorizes the Federal Police to conduct so-called ‘suspicion-independent checks’ in certain areas (such as airports and train stations, on trains, and in border regions) to prevent illegal entry, this does not mean that the Federal Police may violate the fundamental human rights prohibition of discrimination when selecting individuals for such random checks by choosing people solely or primarily based on their perceived ethnicity or ‘skin color’.”
www.institut-fuer-menschenrechte.de

Pro Asyl states:
“Racial profiling is state-sanctioned racist stigmatization. Police officers who stop and search people solely based on their skin color are implying that people with dark skin are potential criminals,” explains Bernd Mesovic, legal policy advisor for Pro Asyl. “They are not only fueling racist prejudices among the population, who witness these stops daily, but above all, they are conveying to those affected that the German state considers them suspicious simply because of their skin color. For those affected, this is discriminatory, hurtful, and exclusionary. Through racial profiling, German police officers are becoming obstacles to integration.”
http://www.proasyl.de

Refugee Council of Lower Saxony:
The targeted checks of people based on their skin color at train stations or public places have been repeatedly criticized by refugees for years and constitute a form of racist discrimination that must be combated and prevented. To date, the police and Federal Border Guard have, to our knowledge, denied targeted checks based on ethnic criteria with specious and often unconvincing justifications. It represents a new level of stigmatization of Black people when such methods of "racial profiling" are not only publicly admitted by police officers in Germany but also legitimized by administrative courts.
www.nds-fluerat.org
 

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