"The promised relaxations regarding family reunification must finally come!"
Berlin/Osnabrück, February 20, 2024 – The “Family Reunification NOW!” campaign is calling on the Federal Foreign Office and the governing parties to finally implement the facilitations for family reunification for refugees promised in the 2021 coalition agreement, with a protest action on February 22, 2024.
Currently, tens of thousands of families separated by flight and persecution are waiting to be reunited in Germany. Legal regulations, in particular, prevent their family reunification from being swift, legally secure, and humane. The governing coalition promised legislative improvements in its coalition agreement, but nothing has happened since. Even in cases where those affected already have a legal right to family reunification, a lack of digitalization, insufficient capacity at embassies, and complicated rules of jurisdiction lead to endless procedures that typically drag on for several years.
“The German government must finally implement the promised easing of family reunification requirements for siblings of unaccompanied minor refugees. Parents should never be faced with the choice of abandoning a child waiting for them in Germany or leaving another child behind in a war zone or crisis area. Yet this is precisely what German authorities are forcing refugee parents to do with their restrictive handling of sibling reunification, even though the European Court of Justice recently declared a similar practice contrary to EU law. This practice is completely unacceptable from a child rights perspective. It must be stopped immediately,” explains Sophia Eckert, migration and legal expert at terre des hommes .
“The waiting times at German embassies and consulates are unacceptably long. For example, Syrian families have to wait at least 16 months for an embassy appointment, while Afghan families face waits of over two years. During this time, children are separated from their parents and partners and exposed to the dangers of war and persecution in Afghanistan, particularly by the Taliban. Refugee families have a legal right to family reunification. The Federal Foreign Office must therefore live up to its responsibility and do everything possible to reduce waiting times, whether through more staff, digitized application procedures, processing applications in Germany, or more flexible rules regarding jurisdiction,” demands Sebastian Muy, a social worker at the Counseling and Support Center for Young Refugees and Migrants (BBZ) in Berlin.
Sonja Borowski, initiator of the alliance and the protest rally, affirms: “As private individuals, we have been supporting a separated family from Afghanistan since December 2022. Even though this family was finally reunited in early 2024 after a very long wait,
the lengthy process through the German authorities is nerve-wracking and often unbearable for the many families who still have to wait. We need changes to the law and a more humane approach from the authorities so that those affected are spared this uncertainty and anxiety in the future.”
The campaign:
The collective “Family Reunification NOW!” wants to use the demonstration to remind the government of its promise
from the 2021 coalition agreement to facilitate family reunification for refugees and
to draw attention to what the sometimes years-long separation means for refugee families.
What? Demonstration route and rally
When? February 22, 2024, 3 p.m
Where? The route starts at the Federal Foreign Office (3:00 PM); rally at the Bundestag (from 4:00 PM)
Press contacts:
terre des hommes : Wolf-Christian Ramm, 0541/7101-158 or 0171-6729748, c.ramm@ tdh.de
Alliance for Family Reunification NOW : Sonja Borowski, 01573/2771737, familiennachzugjetzt@outlook.de