Caritas Essen
1. General activities of the organization:
The German Caritas Association (DCV) was founded in 1897 by Lorenz Werthmann. Constituted as a non-governmental charitable association, it is recognised by the German Bishops’ Conference as the institutional body of Catholic charities in Germany. The DCV is a platform organisation in which „Caritasverband für das Bistum Essen e.V.” (Caritas Essen) participates. Caritas Essen was established as an independent member organisation on 1st January 1958. In general, its activities consist of community development services and social assistance to marginalised sections of society.
Caritas Essen functions as an umbrella organisation for the various independent Caritas associations in the area of the diocese of Essen. The activities of the associations represented by Caritas Essen include kindergartens, hospitals and all kinds of social services and involve approximately 22.000 employees.
Caritas Essen undertakes the following:
- to advise Caritas associations at a local level such as hospitals, Kindergartens, nursery-schools homes for elderly people;
- to take over lobbying activities for people, whose voice is not heard, such as the unemployed, handicapped, elderly, children, single mothers etc., which means observing and commenting on social legislation and taking part in the political decision making process;
- to develop innovative projects in order to relieve social need;
- to directly counsel people in need or who are suffering from social exclusion, such as refugees, migrants, prisoners, drug users, those with HIV, people in debt, victims of trafficking;
- to develop and run foreign aid projects, mainly in Eastern and South-eastern Europe.
Our participation in the project has been an initiative of the „Referat Ausland“, the foreign aid unit of Caritas Essen, which concentrates on providing humanitarian assistance (based on the help to self-help principle) , emergency relief, and NGO capacity-building. The Referat Ausland employs four full-time staff, primarily in co-ordinating roles. The number of part-time workers (and volunteer staff) varies depending on the various campaigns and projects undertaken. In the period 1994 - 2007, initiatives were launched in Albania, the Baltic States, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Czech Republic, Croatia, Hungary, Kosovo, Macedonia, Poland, Rumania, Serbia and Montenegro and Ukraine, (more information available at http://www.caritas-essen.de).
2. ERSO member is funded by:
Caritas Essen is financed by:
- Grants of governmental institutions;
- Church taxes;
- Donations;
- Project grants from the European Commission.
3. Target group of the ERSO member (in the context of return and reintegration):
The target group consists of refugees of many different nationalities. Rejected asylum seekers, asylum seekers, recognized asylum seekers and irregular migrants. There are also cases of divorced migrants, who were not married long enough to get a residence permit in Germany.
4. Does the ERSO member offer pre-departure counseling?
As regards return counselling, Caritas Essen, together with Raphaels-Werk developed certain principles in respect of return counselling for catholic welfare organisations in Germany. A part of the pre-departure counselling is providing current information about the country of return. The migrants could ask individual questions regarding: social situation in their native country, housing, medical support, schools, labour market and qualification opportunities. We have access to country fact sheets in the database of the Federal Office for Recognition of Refugees. Another part of the counselling service is legal advice, which will be given by a lawyer working for Caritas Essen. As a result of this we can provide clients with a full picture of their options: the realistic chances for an extension of a person’s stay and concrete information on what happens if they choose assisted voluntary return.
5. What kind of reintegration assistance does the ERSO member offer to returnees?
Caritas Essen can offer the following benefits:
-Travel and start up assistance (cash money from the State of North Rhine Westphalia and the German state coming via IOM).
- Assistance in kind on an individual case by case basis. Caritas Essen receives an annual return budget from the State of North Rhine Westphalia. This budget enables us to contribute to the individual costs of a returnee, vocational equipment or medical devices.
-Beside this we also have an ERF Budget. The ERF budget allows us to pay for medicine, a rent allowance and school material for the children in individual cases.
-In some cases we work as a “mediation agency”, which means that we help the refugee to register with reintegration programs of other NGO’s.
6. Partners in the context of voluntary return and reintegration:
National level: 1. A broad network of refugee counsellors of Caritas and other NGO’s,
2. The Reintegration support organisations network in North Rhine Westphalia (including AWO Bocholt, GGUA Münster, Diakonisches Werk Köln, Dortmund and Düsseldorf, Deutsches Rotes Kreuz Hamm, Paderborn and Borken, Multikulturelles Zentrum Lünen, Caritas Düsseldorf, ZUE Hemer, the Ministry of Interior of North Rhine Westphalia and others);
3. IOM Germany,
4. AGEF Berlin and Branches,
5. Solvodi e.V.
6. Commission for hardship cases in the parliament of North Rhine Westphalia,
7. Various lawyers and church based groups, volunteers and government authorities,
EU level: ERSO Project Members, Caritas Europe
Countries of origin: Various Partners of the Referat Auslandshilfe (foreign aid unit) in South-East Europe such as Caritas Belgrade, Serbia, Caritas Bosnia, Macedonia etc.
7. Top 5 of returnees by country of origin assisted by the ERSO member in 2008:
Top 5 counselling contacts by country of origin
- Serbia
- Iraq
- Russian Federation
- Turkey
- Iran
Top 5 actual returns by country of origin
- Iraq 3
- Russian Federation 2
- Serbia 2
- Ukraine 2
- Kosovo 2
Total number of counselling contacts 2008
237
Total number of returnees 2008
31
