Direct Request (CEACR) - adopted 2000, published 89th ILC session (2001)

Migration for Employment Convention (Revised), 1949 (No. 97) - Germany (Ratification: 1959)

The Committee notes that the Government’s report has not been received. It hopes that a report will be supplied for examination by the Committee at its next session and that it will contain full information on the matters raised in its previous direct request, which read as follows:

Article 6, paragraph 1(d).  The Committee notes that section 72 of the 1990 new Aliens Act (Gesetz zur Neuregelung des Ausländerrechts) states that an objection or action against the refusal to grant or renew a residence permit does not postpone the effect of such refusal. In this connection, the Committee would be grateful if the Government would indicate whether and by which means it is assured that migrants for employment will be able to fulfil the administrative formalities and have the right to legal proceedings no less favourable than those which the Government applies to its own nationals.

Article 8, paragraph 1.  The Committee wishes to revert to its former direct request and recall the explanation provided for in paragraph 458 of its General Survey of 1980 on migrant workers, according to which a permanent admission is exclusively connected to a status of permanent residence, whereas the Government states that (at least before the entry into force of the 1990 Aliens Act) under national law the status of a permanent admission presupposed both the possession of a permanent residence permit as well as a permanent work permit. This condition not being fulfilled, incapacity for work did not stand against expulsion. The Committee would appreciate receiving information on whether sections 45 and 46 of the 1990 Aliens Act provide for the possibility of expulsion of a migrant worker who is in possession of a permanent residence permit, solely on the grounds of illness or injury sustained, or whether such an expulsion, according to the new law, is possible only where the worker depends on social welfare schemes.

Article 11, paragraph 2(a).  According to previous reports of the Government, the term "frontier worker" designates a person who, while maintaining his domicile in the frontier region of a given country, is employed as a wage-earner in the frontier region of a neighbouring country and returns to his place of domicile at least once a week. On the other hand, it appears (according to section 6 of the 1990 Order to make exceptional regulations concerning the granting of work permits to newly arriving foreign workers) that a frontier worker can be granted a work permit for a gainful occupation other than self-employment only if he returns daily to his home country or if his occupation is limited to two days per week. The Committee would therefore be grateful if the Government would provide further information as to the precise definition of the term "frontier worker".