According to a posting on Samba it is to keep water and dust out of the
mechanism.

https://www.thesamba.com/vw/classifieds/detail.php?id=2092791

Steven
91 Westy

On Fri, Oct 20, 2017 at 8:41 AM, Karl Ploessl <karl.ploessl@gmail.com>
wrote:

> what is that? Protection for paint?  Is it glued on? (found it in my parts
> bin but not sure when I ordered it, maybe it came with the Sliding Door
> Handle Seal (#251843711) <http://www.busdepot.com/251843711>)?
>  (I think it is 22A on the diagram:
> https://www.volkswagen-classic-parts.de/en/dichtring-dfe1e0.html)
>
> Karl.
>