German lower house backs plan to halt refugee family reunification

By Riham Alkousaa

BERLIN (Reuters) -Germany's Bundestag lower house passed a bill on Friday to suspend family reunification for migrants who do not qualify for full refugee status, fulfilling a conservative election pledge to curb migration and ease pressure on integration systems.

Migration was a pivotal issue in February's federal election, where the far-right nativist Alternative for Germany secured a historic second place with its anti-migration platform.

Germany currently hosts about 388,000 refugees with "subsidiary protection status", a form of international protection granted to people who do not qualify as refugees but who still face a real risk of serious harm if returned to their home country.

The majority of those holding this status are Syrians.

Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt said the new bill was necessary because Germany's integration capacity, especially in education, childcare and housing, had reached its limit.

"Immigration must have limits, and we are reflecting that politically," he told the Bundestag during a heated debate ahead of Friday's vote.

Some 444 lawmakers supporting the bill, while 135 voted against it.

The upper house of parliament, the Bundesrat, which represents Germany's federal states, is expected to approve the bill in July, paving the way for it to become law.

Dobrindt said suspending family reunification would help deter illegal migration by disrupting smuggling networks, which often rely on sending one family member ahead to later bring others.

Berlin initially suspended family reunification for this group in 2016, amid a surge of over 1 million arrivals when then-Chancellor Angela Merkel opened the border for those fleeing war and prosecution in the Middle East and beyond.

It was partially reinstated in 2018, capped at 1,000 visas per month.

'I CAN'T SLEEP'

Tareq Alaows, refugee policy spokesperson for the pro-immigration advocacy group Pro Asyl, said the group was reviewing the bill's constitutionality and will support legal action for affected individuals if rights violations are found.

Ahmad Shikh Ali fled to Germany from Aleppo two-and-a-half years ago, and his family, still stuck in Turkey, had only two cases ahead of them in the reunification queue to be processed and granted a visa to Germany before this law was introduced.

"Since I learned of this decision, I can't sleep, I can't get on with my life," Shikh Ali said, breaking into tears in front of the German parliament on Thursday where he gathered with dozens of other refugees protesting the law.

"My son was crawling when I left him, he is walking now," he said, holding a blurry photo of his 3-year-old son.

He said returning to Syria - where an Islamist government has taken power following the fall of veteran leader Bashar al-Assad last December - was not an option as the security situation remained unstable.

At the migration office in the city of Hanover where Shikh Ali lives, he was told that changing his status after finding full-time employment was not possible.

"I can't go back to Syria, I can't go back to Turkey, I don't have any options, this is what suffocates me," he said.

(Reporting by Riham AlkousaaEditing by Gareth Jones)