After mounting pressure from rights group, France's highest court on Thursday lifted a termporary freeze on family reunification visas for spouses and children of non-European foreigners living in France. The government had imposed the freeze in March 2020 as a way to stop the spread of COVID-19.
The British government says its priority is providing sanctuary to those in dangerous conflict zones post-Brexit. Effectively, this means that unaccompanied children without relatives in the UK no longer have a safe passage to Britain, say campaigners.
Last year, Germany granted far fewer family reunifications for beneficiaries of subsidiary protection than would have been possible by legal means. However, according to a Left Party politician, this isn't entirely the fault of the COVID-19 lockdown.
Since the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic, hundreds of legal foreign residents in France who received family reunification approvals have been unable to get visas for their relatives. They say the suspension of these visa applications is "discriminatory".
Some people have to wait longer than a year before receiving an appointment to apply for reunification with family members in Germany. The Left Party has criticized the German government, saying the long wait is unacceptable and unjust.
Sarah Bettache is 27 years old and lives in France. When she heard that her younger brother Ahmed had made it over the Atlantic from Morocco and arrived safely on the Canary Islands, she set off to find him on Gran Canaria.
The International Organization for Migration (IOM) and the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) have in a joint statement expressed concern about the UK’s plans to intercept and return migrants attempting to cross the English Channel irregularly on boats.
Between August 2019 and June 2020, Germany gave out almost 6,000 family reunification visas to family members of refugees and those with subsidiary protection in Germany. These numbers remain below the government limit -- partly due to the travel bans during the coronavirus pandemic.
Migrants and refugees in the EU can apply to reunite with their children and bring them to Europe if the children are minors. But what if they reach majority during the proceedings? They can still be reunited with their parents, because what matters is the age they were when the application was filed, the European Court of Justice has ruled.
Under German law, recognized refugees have the right to bring their partners and children into Germany. But Eritreans often struggle to get the documents proving these family ties from their own government.
Germany issued over 11,000 visas to family members of refugees with subsidiary protection last year. While the number increased compared to the previous year, the government quota of 1,000 visas per month was not reached.
More than 50 vulnerable migrants, including children, are flying on from Greece to the UK on Monday to join family members there. The British Guardian newspaper referred to the move as "unprecedented."