Lots of you have been asking us questions related to family status and migration. So we decided to gather up the most frequently asked questions and put them to a legal expert in the field of migration. Lawyers at the firm Schlun and Elseven which has offices in Aachen, Düsseldorf and Cologne responded to us. Here is what they said:
How do you look for a loved one who has gone missing during a migration journey? There are several places you can turn to for help.
European asylum rules allow refugees in Greece who have been separated from their families in Germany to apply to be reunited. Yet the German government has revealed that the majority of requests for family reunification continue to be rejected.
British MPs approved the latest Brexit bill, but rejected five amendments. They included provisions to reunite child refugees with families already in the UK, and guaranteed residence for millions of EU citizens.
Parliamentarians (MPs) in the British lower house recently repealed a crucial amendment in the Brexit transition agreement which would have allowed unaccompanied minors to rejoin a parent or relative resident in the UK even once the UK has left the EU. The Brexit transition is expected to begin at the end of January. So what will it mean for young migrants?
In the 16 months since Germany resumed family reunifications for refugees with subsidiary protection, authorities approved close to 20,000 requests. The backlog, meanwhile, remains high.
An Afghan woman known only as "MO1" for legal reasons, has been waiting for the UK to "take charge" of her asylum claim from France since January 2019. While waiting in France, the survivor of rape was allegedly attacked by her husband and blinded in one eye. InfoMigrants spoke to her lawyer Jane Ryan.
The procedures for family reunification for migrants in Italy are taking longer than planned; that's according to a new report by UNHCR in conjunction with Caritas and the Communitas consortium.
Zuhal Pardis arrived in France in July 2019. She came with the aim of rejoining the father who she hadn’t seen since she was three years old, after he left Afghanistan 18 years ago. Now she has been told by the French authorities that she will be sent to Germany, where she first entered the EU, to seek asylum there.
Italian authorities have accused 21 people, including Italian and foreign nationals, of issuing fake documents that were presented as part of family reunification applications.
One year after the introduction of family reunifications for refugees who have been given subsidiary protection in Germany, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) called for the German government to also recognize siblings as family members that could become eligible for reunification.
Germany has allowed thousands of people related to refugees with asylum status to join them. The government agreed to change the rules on family reunification for some refugees last year.