Publication

At their meeting on 16-17 November 2006, the sixteen German Länder ministers of interior adopted a decision allowing for regularisation of irregular residents in Germany. This measure aims at finally providing a first answer to one of the most pressing and deplorable peculiarities of German immigration law, the so-called ‘chain-toleration’ (Kettenduldung). Foreign residents who are legally obliged to leave the country and whose deportation is imminent yet for practical or legal reasons cannot be executed, are issued a document stating that they have received a “suspension of deportation”, known as “toleration” (Duldung).