Donation party planned in Beuel Chef faces deportation after 17 years in Bonn

SCHWARZRHEINDORF · 33-year-old Jerby Barrientos from Beuel is to be deported to the Philippines - despite a permanent job. Now a donation party is planned, in order to be able to pay the legal costs.

Without Jerby Barrientos, gastronomer Oliver Weiss would be in serious trouble. "If he were gone, it would tear a huge hole in the business," he says. Born in the Philippines, he has been working as a chef in the Assenmacher restaurant for more than six years and has lived in Bonn for 17 years.

Now the city of Bonn wants to deport him - because he is not supposed to have tried to stay in Germany in the long run. Barrientos and Weiss now want to challenge the decision with the help of a lawyer, for which they are collecting money at a fund-raising party this Sunday.

Chef pays taxes and social security contributions

The cook regularly pays taxes and social security contributions. If you open the menu of the restaurant, you immediately notice the Philippine glass noodle salad, which stands next to traditional German dishes. "We always serve dishes from Jerby's homeland," says Weiss. As a chef, he played a decisive role in shaping the restaurant that Weiss took over about six and a half years ago. "And he has become a friend," says Weiss.

They got to know each other when they worked together in a canteen. Weiss is all the more annoyed about what they have had to deal with for four years now. "I had forgotten to renew my residence permit with the city of Bonn and was a few months overdue. Of course, that was my fault," says Barrientos.

When he noticed this, he immediately submitted all the necessary documents. The subsequent administrative procedure lasted until today and ended with his passport being confiscated and him being asked to leave the country in May. "The person concerned is responsible himself for applying for the extension of his residence permit in good time," explains Stefanie Zießnitz of the Press Office of the City of Bonn.

Family reunion to Bonn

If someone forgets for understandable reasons but is cooperative, they usually find a solution. Anyone who resides in a country without a residence permit and refuses to participate in an administrative procedure could be obliged to leave the country even after several years of legal residence. "The case would have long been clarified in the interest of the person concerned if he had reacted in normal time", said Zießnitz.

Barrientos was born in the Philippines as the son of diplomats. He came to Bonn through a family reunion with his parents, who worked in the Philippine embassy. At the age of 33, he has spent more time on the Rhine than in his home country. "That's why Bonn has not become my second home, but my real home.“

When the embassy went to Berlin, his parents looked for new jobs and got an unlimited residence permit. His son Jerby, however, did not - nevertheless, he looked for a job and began training as a cook. At Oliver Weiss’ restaurant he now has a permanent position, pays taxes and social security contributions. Correspondence on the case fills several folders. Again and again he was asked to submit documents.

Deleted from the register in Bonn

"The question of payroll accounting certainly came five times," says Weiss, who supports Barrientos in dealing with the authorities. At some point it turned out that he had not been registered at all in Bonn. "He had apparently been removed from the register and they then were surprised that he was still living here.“ Barrientos employed a lawyer. According to Barrientos' assessment, the chances are good that he will be allowed to stay in Germany - if only because he has had a permanent job for years.

The problem is lawyers' fees of 2500 Euros, of which 1000 have to be paid at the start. "That's money I don't have." That's why Weiss, friends and colleagues organize the German-Philippine donation festival. "Hopefully it will all be over by then," says Barrientos. Because he doesn't want to go back to the Philippines. "I don't know anybody there anymore. I don't know what to do there. Except go on holiday." At the party at 12.30 p.m. at Stiftsstraße 2 there will be grilled pig and Filipino specialities.

(Original text: Nicolas Ottersbach, Translation: Mareike Graepel)

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