Upwards of 36,000 Syrian families running from imminent death and persecution may soon be reunited with relatives living in Germany, following the launch of a program by a humanitarian organization and the German government.
The International Organization of Migration’s “Family Assistance Programme (FAP) for Syrians” aims to deter Syrians from undertaking “unsafe, irregular migration channels to reach Europe” by allowing some families currently in Turkey and Lebanon to apply for asylum status to Germany, an IOM press release said. The program, which will run at least through the end of 2016, hopes to reunite Syrian families with related individuals already granted asylum status and now living in Germany.
Almost half of the 500,000 asylees who registered in Germany last year could qualify for visas to bring in relatives based on family reunification. Those family members include spouses and single minor children of people already living in Germany, or the parent of an unaccompanied minor refugee. About 30,000 unaccompanied children have entered Germany and now live alone in the country, the state-owned Turkish news outlet TRT World reported.
The joint partnership could likely help to reduce the number of deaths in the Mediterranean Sea, which total 3,034 this year. Rather than having people take their chances on overcrowded dinghies across the Mediterranean Sea in deadly conditions, the IOM program could incentivize Syrian families to apply from abroad by helping them gather evidence and documents needed to apply for the German family reunification visa and offering an Arabic-language outreach class to prepare for integration into German society.
The U.S. Will Allow More Central American Immigrants To Enter The CountryImmigration by CREDIT: AP Photo/Gregory Bull The U.S. government just made it easier for some Central Americans fleeing…thinkprogress.orgThe number of displaced people in Syria doubled in June from the previous month, with more than 100,000 Syrians fleeing their homes. More than 4.8 million Syrians have taken refuge in neighboring countries, with Turkey hosting 2.7 million Syrians and Lebanon taking in about one million.
“While I am heartened to see an increase in the number of resettlement places and countries like Germany committing to family reunification programmes, more must be done,” IOM Turkey Chief of Mission, Lado Gvilava said. “The burden must be shared. Governments, civil society and international organizations must work together to offer additional safe, orderly and legal options for people fleeing violence, to deter them risking irregular migration.”
The IOM plan followed a humanitarian call by German Chancellor Angela Merkel who defended a decision last week to keep her country’s borders open for asylum seekers so long as they had legitimate claims. Over the past month, officials determined that three refugees or asylum seekers may have been inspired by Islamic extremism when they carried out separate attacks in the country.
Merkel’s compassionate sentiment has not trickled down to the German population however. Refugees and asylees have been the targets of arson attempts, most recently through an explosive suitcase bombing near a refugee reception center. German officials have also been reluctant to crack down on crimes against refugees, an Amnesty International report found.
Beyond Germany, the global displacement of people looking for a permanent place to call home isn’t isolated to Syrian refugees or the European Union. The U.S. government recently announced a similar initiative to recognize and expand the number of Central Americans allowed into the country as refugees based on biological relationships. That plan will only recognize certain family members as refugees if they are related to someone who is lawfully present in the United States.