No real improvement for refugees with disabilities

The motto of this year’s International Day of Persons with Disabilities is “Transformative solutions for inclusive development: the role of innovation in fuelling an accessible and equitable world”. But what exactly does this mean in practice, especially for refugees in Germany?

People with long-term physical, mental or intellectual sensory impairments face various barriers that prevent them from fully and effectively participating in society on an equal basis. In adopting the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD), the German government has committed to the removal of these barriers across all areas of life, something that can be achieved with the help of digital and technological innovations such as accessible apps and modern prosthetic devices. The scope of the UNCRPD, however, is not limited to German citizens, but covers refugees with disabilities, too. It is therefore crucial that transformative solutions also include and explicitly address the rights and specific needs of refugees with disabilities.

To be able to do so, we need reliable and comprehensive ways of determining whether a refugee has a disability in the first place and if so, what special needs come with this. Despite the very clear criteria set down in the UNCRPD and the EU Reception Directive, Germany still has no uniform, binding system that would make this possible. Once it has been determined that a refugee has a disability, comprehensive access to health, care and integration assistance services must be provided. Here, too, refugees face huge legal and practical hurdles. Digitalisation processes, for example in government agencies, also have to take the inclusion of refugees with disabilities into account. This can be achieved by making apps accessible, for example with the help of screen readers, reducing the barriers to information.
 

The German government has undertaken to promote accessibility for the current legislative period. How well do you think they are fulfilling this commitment when it comes to the needs of refugees with disabilities?

Many reception centres are still not accessible, nor do they meet the needs of the refugees using them, resulting in particular challenges for refugees with disabilities. They often have no tactile guidance systems for the blind or visually impaired, visual doorbells, pictogram signage, automatic door openers or lifts for people with reduced mobility. But accessibility alone is not enough. Large, noisy facilities do not meet the needs of people with autism for instance, nor of people with special diets because of health issues. We at the at the Crossroads project are of the opinion that the big refugee reception centres are not a needs-based environment for people with disabilities.

There is also significant room for improvement when it comes to government authorities and the courts. The right to accessible information is generally not respected in asylum procedures, for example with regard to decisions on applications for asylum. This can delay access to legal representation, undermining the right to legal aid.

Overall, little has improved – especially in terms of identifying refugees with disabilities and providing them with suitable accommodation and care. The new EU Reception Directive, which Germany is obligated to implement by 2026, provides us with an opportunity to address many of these shortcomings.  And this opportunity should not be wasted. The German Accessibility Improvement Act (Barrierefreiheitsstärkungsgesetz, BFSG), effective from next year, should also be reviewed and modified again in terms of its applicability to the lives of refugees.
 

Refugees with disabilities have never really been part of public discourse. What do you think are the reasons for this and what steps would have to be taken to dismantle the barriers to access that refugees with disabilities face in advocating for themselves and participating in public bodies?

A dramatic development, and one that is unacceptable in terms of Germany’s Basic Law and the UNCRPD, is the amendment to the Citizenship Act introduced in mid-2024, which stipulates that people with disabilities no longer have the right to naturalisation if they are not (fully) able to work as result of their disability. This amendment sends the devastating signal that democratic participation and thus participation in public life is tied to economic productivity. And this excludes many people with disabilities from such participation.

Promoting self-representation and advocacy is an important government obligation set out in the UNCRPD. The basis needed for this is that refugees with disabilities are properly informed of their rights – to inclusion and participation in decision-making – as well as about the accessible services available to them. It goes without saying that venues where political dialogue takes place must be accessible and meet the needs of people with disabilities.

The particular life circumstances of refugees with disabilities also makes participation more difficult. The German government’s failure to take their needs into account when refugees are distributed around the country shortly after they arrive, for instance, also contributes to their exclusion. Deaf people, for example, are often placed in an environment where no one understands sign language. The assignment of refugees to accommodation in more remote areas as well as the use of payment cards (through which refugees receive their benefits) are further examples of barriers to inclusion.
 

Discourse on immigration often centres around the professional qualifications that immigrants have, as well as the economic added value of migration in general. How do you see the situation with inclusion of refugees with disabilities on the labour market?

Access to the employment market is a fundamental human right – one that is also protected under the UNCRPD. Refugees with disabilities should have the same opportunities to contribute their skills as anyone else and be financially independent. This is not only a question of societal justice, but also essential for a society in which all people are recognised as equal.

The experiences of the self-advocacy group NOW! Nicht Ohne Das Wir (Not Without Us)highlight the significant hurdles that refugees with disabilities face in trying to access the labour market. The first of these barriers is usually language acquisition. The limited number of needs-oriented integration courses and the lack of inclusive practices make it more difficult for refugees with disabilities to learn German. Providing online courses in accessible and needs-appropriate formats as well as accessible apps could really help here.

Many workplaces are not accessible either. When they apply for jobs, a lot refugees with disabilities are reduced to their disability, not to mention the additional prejudices they face because of their migrant background. Job centres often fail to provide adequate support in their search for suitable employment. All of this means that a large number of refugees with disabilities are unable to gain access to the regular employment market, and as a result end up in workshops for people with disabilities that neither pay the minimum wage nor provide the means of subsistence required for a residence permit or naturalisation. Without this access to the labour market, refugees with disabilities will often remain on the fringes of society, unintegrated.

The interview was conducted by Annemarie Schmidt, intern at the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung.