Terre des hommes demands: no suspension of family reunification
Osnabrück/Berlin, May 27, 2025 - On May 28, the Federal Cabinet on the initiative of the Interior Ministry is to decide on a draft law that exposes family reunification into a subsidiary protection for two years. For those affected, the suspension would mean that they would be separated from their families for many years. Already today, many affected people are waiting for long periods of decisions in the asylum procedure, appointments to apply for family reunification and the concrete implementation. The suspension of family reunification would therefore separate them from their relatives well beyond two years.
On the occasion of the draft resolution for family reunification at tomorrow's cabinet meeting, Joshua Hofert, board spokesman for Terre des Hommes, explains:
»The protection of children within their family is part of the foundation of our society and is legally firmly anchored. But many families are separated from displacement and escape. Children and adolescents sometimes wait for the merging with their parents for years. This also applies to those who are entitled to protection, most of whom will live permanently in Germany. Their integration is made more difficult without their families: if parents or children are unreachable far away, they can learn worse, do an apprenticeship or concentrate on work.
As an organization that is committed to the rights of children, Terre des Hommes appeals to the Federal Government to refrain from the proposed amendment to the law. The ban on family reunification as a supposed symbol for a migration turn will only lead to the fact that the separation of families is extended immeasurably and the integration of fluors living here is blocked. Against the background of the access numbers of refugees, which has fallen strongly for several months, the planned change in the law is all the less understandable. «