Germany to suspend asylum seekers' rights to bring family members
Germany is to suspend family reunification rights for asylum seekers, its government has announced.
The policy, in place since 2018, has allowed 1,000 people a month to follow their relatives into the country.
Its suspension represents the latest move by the coalition government to restrict migration in response to the surging popularity of the far-Right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party.
'We have to significantly reduce the pull factors to Germany. This also shows that the migration policy in Germany has changed,' said Alexander Dobrindt, the interior minister of the Christian Social Union (CSU) party.
Asylum seekers had been able to bring their partners and children to Germany if they were from conflict regions, before their applications were officially granted.
Last year, figures showed there were more than 350,000 people in Germany who had not been granted full asylum and could be eligible for family reunification, with Syria and Afghanistan the most common countries of origin.
The suspension of family reunification rights aims to save €12 million a year, mostly from fees for integration language courses.
Germany has long been wrestling with the consequences of Angela Merkel's 2015 decision to allow in more than a million refugees, mostly from the Middle East. Meanwhile, the AfD has risen to become the country's second political force and the most popular party in some polls.
'Intensified' border controls
Friedrich Merz, the chancellor and long-term rival of Ms Merkel, was elected on a promise of a drastic 'turnaround' on migration policies.
He even broke a long-standing German political taboo to vote alongside the AfD in January on a plan to reduce migration following several terrorist attacks suspected to have been committed by former asylum seekers.
Since the new Government took office, Germany has intensified border controls and turned back irregular migrants at its borders, despite the move being legally questionable under the European Union's Dublin agreement.
Mr Dobrindt said current figures showed that 'the intensified border controls are working,' with almost 1,700 people turned back in two weeks.
However, the measures have caused conflict with Germany's neighbours.
Donald Tusk, the Polish prime minister, warned that he would be 'ready to close the border' using an emergency EU security treaty 'if you send migrants to us'. Switzerland has also claimed that the pushbacks are illegal.
Meanwhile, Ms Merkel made a rare political intervention during an event in Ulm to condemn the border controls. She said: 'This will cost us Schengen if it becomes permanent… We have to focus on the EU's external borders'.
However, Ms Merkel admitted: 'I have always advocated European solutions, and the truth is that it takes forever and a very long time.'
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