BERLIN // Syrian refugees in Germany who want to be reunited with their families face a nightmare in the courts because of "inhumane' obstacles.
For a rising number of newcomers, many of them men who arrived without their families, the situation is untenable, say critics.
Since the start of the year, 32,551 refugees - 28,444 of them Syrians - have filed legal complaints to gain recognition as refugees under the definition set out by the 1951 Geneva Conventions. Those rules specifically include a right to family reunification.
However the authorities charged with according asylum in Germany, the Federal Office for Migrants and Refugees (BAMF), as a rule now offer only "subsidiary protection" to Syrians fleeing the five-year-old civil war in their country. This lower-tier status only provides a temporary residence permit, which is valid for one year and subject to renewal, and bars the application for family members to be allowed entry to Germany until March 2018.
The process itself can take another two years and represents a marked tightening of the rules from last year, when about 96 per cent of Syrian applicants automatically received full refugee status without even having to undergo an interview at the BAMF.
From this year, however, BAMF has insisted on determining whether applicants personally underwent persecution in Syria to determine their status.
According to Pro Asyl, a German refugee rights group, 46 per cent of Syrian asylum seekers received only subsidiary protection in June, compared to 14 per cent of those who had registered two years previously.
"You have to assume you'll be separated for four to five years. That is an incredibly inhumane hardship for the people affected and their families, who are exposed to war," said a group spokesman.
Hamburg lawyer Tobias Behnke said there was "clearly a political motivation" in offering only subsidiary protection to most asylum seekers. "I think the idea is to make Germany less attractive for refugees," he said.
Walid, a 41-year-old cook from Damascus, left his wife and six children in Turkey on his way to Berlin, and has given up hope of seeing them anytime soon.
"I'd be willing to go back to Turkey to be near my children but I'm not even allowed to do that because I have a Syrian passport and you need a visa to go to Turkey," he said.
Chancellor Angela Merkel's popularity plummeted after nearly 900,000 asylum seekers from the world's crisis zones entered Germany last year, but has recovered more recently as the number of new arrivals has fallen.
As the country enters a decisive election year with anti-migrant populists on the rise, the mass arrival of refugees' wives and children would have created a major challenge for the chancellor as she seeks a fourth term.
The leftist opposition cannot help but point to the connection and has protested against the change in the rules. But Mrs Merkel's coalition government - which includes both right and left-wing parties - insists the BAMF makes its own policies independently.
The tougher policy has resulted in more work for the German courts. Since January, about one third of the 100,000 Syrians granted only limited protection have turned to the German justice system, forcing courts to take on more personnel to manage the caseload.
Most of the time, the legal battle has proved worth it for refugees.
According to BAMF figures, three quarters of the 3,490 cases already heard have been decided in favour of the Syrians, with judges accepting their argument that they risked persecution by the regime of Bashar Al Assad regime for having fled.
However a higher court last month issued a ruling dismissing the risk, upholding the BAMF's policy of delaying family reunification.
"The higher you go with the appeals, the more political the justice system becomes," said Bernd Mesovic of Pro Asyl.
* Agence France-Presse
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