"The promised relief in family reunification must finally come!"
Berlin/Osnabrück, 20.02.2024 - The campaign "Family reunification now!" With a protest on February 22, 2024, prompted the Federal Foreign Office and the government parties to finally implement the relief for refugees promised in the coalition agreement in 2021.
Tens of thousands of families who have been separated by flight and persecution are currently waiting to be reunited in Germany. Above all, legal regulations prevent your family reunification from being able to take place quickly, legally and human. The traffic light coalition had promised legal improvements in the coalition agreement, but nothing has happened since then. Even in cases in which those affected already have a legal right to family reunification, lack of digitization, lack of capacities in the messages and complicated rules of responsibility lead to endless procedures, which usually run over several years.
"The Federal Government must finally implement the promised relief when the siblings are followed by unaccompanied minor refugees. Parents should never be before the decision to give up a child waiting in Germany or to leave another child in the war or crisis area. But the German authorities are forcing the parents fled with their restrictive handling of the siblings, although the European Court of Justice recently had a similar procedure than has explained this practice in an acceptable perspective.
"The waiting times for the German representatives are unreasonably long. For example, Syrian families have to wait at least 16 months for an embassy appointment, with Afghan families it is even over two years. During this time, children are separated from each other by their parents and partners and, in Afghanistan, the risk of war and persecution in particular by the Taliban. The families of the fled are therefore legal. to meet his responsibility and do everything to reduce the waiting times, be it through more staff, digitized application procedures, through the processing of applications in Germany or more flexible responsibility regulations, ”Sebastian Muy, social worker in the advisory and care center for young refugees and migrants (BBZ) in Berlin.
Sonja Borowski, initiator of the alliance and the protest rally, confirms: "As private individuals, we have accompanied a separate family from Afghanistan since December 2022. Even if this family could finally be combined again in early 2024:
For the many families who have to continue to wait, the long way through the German authorities is nerve -wracking. Human-friendly official practice so that those affected are spared the uncertainty and fear in the future. ”
The action:
The collective "Family reunification now!" With the demonstration, the government wants to make the government
easier to make family reunification into refugees, remind the coalition agreement in 2021 and
draw attention to what the years of separation for refugees, some of which have been separated.
What? Demorary and rally
When? 22.02.2024, 3 p.m.
Where? Start of the route at the Federal Foreign Office (3:00 p.m.); Rally on the Bundestag (from 4:00 p.m.)
Press contact:
Terre des Hommes : Wolf-Christian Ramm, 0541/7101-158 or 0171-6729748, C.Ramm@ tdh.de
Alliance family reunification now : Sonja Borowski, 01573/2771737, family session jetzen@outlook.de