Aexander Dobindt, German Interior Photo Minister: Bernd von Jutrczenka / AFP / Profimedia
German Interior Minister Alexander Dobindt will present in the Government a draft law restricting family reunification for certain refugees, his Ministry for the DPA agency confirmed on Sunday, Agerpres reports.
The relatives of refugees with subsidiary protection status will be allowed to join them in Germany only after two years, according to the Minister's plans, following the coalition agreement concluded between the Conservatives of the Chancellor Friedrich Merz (CDU/CSU) and social-democrats (SPD).
The cases considered particularly urgent will be exempted from the new family reunification rules. “So far, 1,000 people a month have been able to follow their families in Germany. This is over now,” Minister Dobindt told the tabloid Bild, who told the first about these plans.
“We must significantly reduce the attraction factors to Germany. This is another way to show that Germany's migration policy has changed,” he added.
The new German government, led by conservatives, promised to fight illegal immigration. In the first 24 hours after the installation, Dobindt ordered the intensification of the controls and the return of the asylum applicants to the border, despite the critics who say that the measure violates the EU law.
Germany has already suspended family reunifications for refugees without asylum status between March 2016 and July 2018, invoking overloaded capabilities. Since August 2018, up to 1,000 relatives of refugees without this status have received permission to come to Germany monthly.
The previous center-left government of the Chancellor Olaf Scholz intended to raise all the restrictions on the family reunification of this category, but failed to implement the plan before the coalition is dismantled in November 2024.
More than 30 NGOs asked Berlin not to restrict family reunifications again.
