“Before I came to Germany, I didn’t know it would be so difficult. I just didn’t know. You know, we’re men, and we men are not used to raising children,” says Mohammed. He fled the in 2014 with his wife, two daughters and two sons to Iraqi Kurdistan.
Life was so difficult for the family there that his wife, two daughters and one son returned to Syria. Mohammed made the decision to make the dangerous journey to Germany together with his son, who suffers from cerebral atrophy, in the hope of getting medical treatment and one day being reunited with the rest of the family in Germany.
But two and half years after arriving in the country, Mohammed still lives alone with his nine-year-old severely disabled son and has no idea when or if his wife and two daughters will be able to join him. His second son died
Housed in shared accommodation at refugee centers, a friend eventually offered Mohammed a place to stay in what he describes as a broken-down house. He says they struggle to make ends meet on social welfare.
Mohammed was granted subsidiary protection status by the German authorities. It is granted to people who do not meet the specific criteria for but who face a risk of serious harm in their country of origin, including the death penalty, torture, inhuman or degrading treatment, or indiscriminate violence in the context of an armed conflict.
There are currently around 351,400 people with subsidiary protection status living in Germany, the majority from Syria. They receive a residence permit, typically for an initial one year, and have the right to live and work in Germany and access social benefits. But while asylum seekers and recognized refugees have the right to reunification with spouses and children under the age of 18 under German and EU law, those with subsidiary protection status do not.
Now the new coalition government of the conservative , its Bavarian sister party, the , and the center-left plan to suspend family reunification for those with subsidiary protection status for at least the next two years.
told the Bundestag on May 16 that citizens “expected a change of policy” on immigration and that included an end to family reunification in certain cases. “The country’s “ability to integrate” had “simply reached a breaking point,” Dobrindt said, adding that cities and municipalities across the country were at their limit.
Subsidiary protection status central to immigration debate
The issue of family reunification for people with subsidiary protection status has been a . In 2015, the government led by former Chancellor granted spouses, children or parents of beneficiaries of subsidiary protection the right to reunification. But this right was
Since 2018, the families of people granted subsidiary protection have been able to be reunited. However, the German government limits the number of visas it issues to a maximum of 1,000 per month. That causes a lot of uncertainty for people like Mohammed and his family in Syria who must contend with long waiting lists, lengthy bureaucratic procedures and a limited number of visas.
In 2024, Germany issued around 120,000 visas for the purpose of family reunification, according to Foreign Office figures requested by Mediendienst Integration, an information service run by the Council for Migration, a nationwide association of migration researchers. Around 10% (12,000) were issued to relatives of people with subsidiary protection in Germany.
Families separated by the slow-moving bureaucratic system
Critics such as human rights NGO Pro Asyl say that the separation from family can place a huge psychological strain on those affected, which can have consequences for integration and also irregular immigration. Without any legal route to reunite with children, parents or spouses, some take the risk of using irregular, often unsafe routes to reach their loved ones in Germany.
Legal experts say that even if the EU Family Reunification Directive does not apply to people with subsidiary protection because it was adopted before the status of subsidiary protection was defined, legislators are still bound by Article Six of Germany’s Basic Law and the right to family life enshrined in the European Convention on Human Rights.
However, one important restriction has been introduced by the in Germany and accepted by the “If there is an alternative of family life in another country, especially in the country of origin, then there is no automatic right of family reunification in Germany,” says Thomas Gross, an expert on German and EU law at the University of Osnabrück.
Germany’s Constitutional Court will ultimately have to decide whether an end to family reunification for people with subsidiary protection is legally permissible, which will most likely take years, according to Gross. Meanwhile, families like Mohammed’s remain separated indefinitely by slow-moving legal and bureaucratic processes.
“It’s not a question that you go to the embassy and the next day you get on a flight to Germany. It is a complicated and often lengthy procedure,” Gross told DW. A recent study found that it took anywhere from six months to more than two years before family members were issued visas by German embassies. “It sometimes involves DNA tests, sometimes the embassy is far away in another country, which is practically impossible for many people,” explains Gross.
Mohammed says he has been unable to learn German or work because, without the support of his wife or other close relatives, he is effectively a full-time carer for his son, who requires regular hospital visits. His subsidiary protection visa is valid for one year and a renewal is far from certain after a federal state court
“There should be help from the state for my family to come here, this is an exceptional humanitarian situation,” Mohammed says, “I mean, how am I supposed to endure this any longer?”
Daline Sahalie contributed to this article.
Edited by Rina Goldenberg
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