Germany awaits hundreds of thousands of asylum seekers' family members
According to the German government's assessment, in the near future, approximately 200,000 to 300,000 Syrian and Iraqi nationals will travel to Germany to join their family members who have applied for asylum in Germany and whose applications have been approved.
The basis for this assessment is the number of visas issued to family members of asylum seekers, the expectation of future applications to the German government in this regard, and the recent stance of the German government. The German newspaper "Welt am Sonntag" has raised questions in this regard, and the answers of the German government make the experts' assessments in this regard appear realistic.
Currently, the waiting time for a visa at German embassies in various countries is very long. In Erbil, Iraq, this time is seven months and in Beirut, nine to 12 months. In Turkey, however, the waiting time for a visa has recently been reduced to one month.
A big challenge for the German government
A German government official was quoted as saying that the historic scale of immigration to Germany in 2015 presented the country's Foreign Ministry with a major dilemma regarding the entry of family members of those whose asylum applications were approved.
Despite hiring new people to handle these cases and facilitate the visa process, investigating these individuals' cases and issuing visas to family members of asylum seekers is still insufficient and has necessitated a long time.
German government officials have reported that since the beginning of this year (2017), German missions in various countries have issued 17,000 visas to family members of asylum seekers. However, the German Foreign Ministry believes that the number of visa applicants is much higher.
Protest against this process
In such circumstances, Luise Amtzberg, the spokesperson for the German Green Party on refugee issues, has called on the country's government to solve the problem of issuing visas to these applicants as soon as possible by hiring more staff.
Ms. Amtzberg told a reporter for the German newspaper "Welt am Sonntag" on Sunday (July 9): "The entry of family members of Syrian and Iraqi citizens whose refugee applications have been approved in Germany is difficult."
Source: DW
