A ruling in favor of a 16-year-old syrian's family moving to germany reignites the debate on refugee policy at christmas.
According to information from the ARD capital city studio, the ruling by the berlin administrative court unexpectedly became legally binding on friday. Aubenminister sigmar gabriel (SPD) buried the ruling.
Accordingly, the court requested the foreign office to allow the refugee, who had been severely traumatized, to be joined by his parents and siblings for reasons of the child's well-being. The juvenile had only been granted subsidiary protection, i.E. Limited protection. The foreign office withdrew an appeal.
For refugees with limited protection, family reunification is suspended until march. The suspension is controversial. The dispute was also allowed to complicate the exploratory talks between union and SPD. The union insists on a further suspension, the SPD wants to end it.
The refugee organization pro asyl considered the berlin case to be a landmark case. "The ruling has fundamental significance beyond the individual case," managing director gunter burkhardt told the german press agency. "We consider the separation of families to be contrary to the constitution and hostile to integration."
The juvenile had come to the country with a cousin in 2015. Because of his traumatization, his guardian thomas henke wanted to obtain a hard-case decision several times, according to ARD. He had been rejected by the foreign office. Henke told ARD: "it is simply unimaginable that it has happened so close to christmas."
Gabriel told the "tagesschau": "we as social democrats have always said that the united nations convention on the rights of the child is of particular importance – just as we know in general that it is naturally bad when minors are here without parents." the union and the interior ministry often had a different view. "The fact that we are now getting clarity is a good story."
CDU vice chairman thomas strobl urges a more drastic limitation of the influx of refugees than the union has demanded so far. "I'm working hard to get the immigration figures back to normal – and i'm not even thinking of the much-discussed 200,000 per year," baden-wurttemberg's interior minister told "heilbronner stimme" (saturday). The goal should rather be the number from 2012. "At that time, around 65,000 refugees arrived. This number has not brought us to the limits of our capacity and has been accepted by the public."CDU and CSU agreed in october that a maximum of 200,000 refugees should be admitted per year.
In the first eleven months of this year, the federal office for migration and refugees (BAMF) received 207,157 asylum applications.
Strobl demanded that the bundestag quickly demand the suspension of family reunification for subsidiary protection beneficiaries. Otherwise, the number of arrivals will rise again in april 2018. Burkhardt countered that the numbers resulting from a resumption of family reunification should remain manageable.
The theme also plays a role in the churches at christmas. Hamburger and lubeck bishop kirsten fehrs called on politicians to make family reunification possible again. At the same time, she spoke out against the deportation of rejected asylum applicants to unsafe countries of origin. The empathy of christmas also includes the message: "that people should not be deported to a country that is not safe". That family reunification is possible."
The diakonie hessen and the protestant church in hesse and nassau caused a stir: postcards show nativity scene motifs in which individual figures of the "holy family" are missing. This is to point out the "dramatic situation of many fugitives", who sometimes have to stay separated from their parents for years.