Three refugees from Syria, Afghanistan and Cameroon SUE for invasion of privacy after their phones were checked to prove their ID in Germany
- Refugees are suing Germany for invasion of privacy for demanding their phones
- It’s legal to use asylum seekers’ phones to identify them if they have no passport
- Society of Civil Rights argues that the method is used too soon in the process
Refugees from Syria, Afghanistan and Cameroon are suing Germany for invasion of privacy after Germany demanded their access to their cellphones to prove their identities.
The refugees are Syrian Mohammad A, 29, who was granted refugee status in Hanover, an Afghan woman, 37, who was lodged in Berlin and a woman from Cameroon, 25 in Stuttgart.
It has been legal for Germany to examine asylum seekers’ mobile phones who do not have valid identity documents such as passports since 2017.
Pictured: a sign of protest saying ‘take refugees close camps’ in front of Brandenburg Gate in Berlin during a protest to release refugees from camps during the coronavirus crisis on April 5
But Berlin’s Society of Civil Rights (GFF) is arguing that this method was used too quickly and is a violation of the refugees’ human rights.
‘I didn’t know what exactly was happening, nobody had explained anything. But I was afraid to be deported, so I gave the mobile. It was as if I was handing over my whole life,’ he said in a statement released by the GFF,’ said one the claimants Mohammad A.
Mohammad’s asylum application was approved in 2015 but he still had to hand over his phone when his status was reassessed last year.
A GFF lawyer Lea Beckmann said: ‘The BAMF (Germany’s ministry for migration and refugees) is disregarding the strict constitutional rules by which the state must abide when accessing personal data.’
The Society of Civil Rights (GFF) (logo pictured right) is filing the lawsuit on behalf of the three refugees with lawyer Lea Beckmann (pictured left)
The BAMF said it was aware that checking mobile data was an intrusion and every case was determined by strict rules.
A spokesman said: ‘A mobile phone is often the only, or a very important, source to establish the identity and nationality of people entering Germany without a passport or identification documents.’
The World Refugee Council and other refugee rights groups have also spoken out against non-consensual data collection and phones being used for unethical surveillance.