Almost 11,000 relatives of migrants to Germany were waiting for appointments at German missions abroad to get visas to join their families.
The information was released in the German government’s answer to a parliamentary question published by the Funke Media group on Tuesday.
At the end of March, there were 10,974 appointment requests for family reunions for refugees admitted to Germany with subsidiary protection in embassies and consulates in Lebanon, northern Iraq and Turkey.
However, subsidiary or limited protection is given to those who were at threat of serious harm in their own countries, from torture or war. Many Syrian refugees come under this category.
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The number of visas issued each month to join beneficiaries of subsidiary protection remains well below the monthly legal limit of 1,000, according to the Funke report.
Meanwhile, German missions abroad had issued 264 visas for family reunification in January 2021, 473 in Feb, 442 in March and 363 in April.
Germany’s Federal Office of Administration acts as an interface between foreign authorities and German overseas missions in the complex applications process.
The coronavirus pandemic and restrictions in the work of German consulates saw a significant drop in numbers recently, but they had already been under the upper limit before.
