Syrian refugees in Germany required to renew passports at pro-Assad embassies
Germany is forcing people displaced by the Syrian war to get documents and hand over money at Syrian consulates loyal to Bashar Assad.
Refugee advocates say this is inhumane and supports the brutal Assad regime.
Of the hundreds of thousands of displaced Syrians who have come to Germany since 2014, many enjoy only "subsidiary protection" and not full refugee status. Among other things, this means that they are dependent on embassies loyal to the regime of President Bashar Assad.
Under German law, people with various levels of political asylum or similar protection in Germany have to actively cooperate in procuring identity documentation, including passports. And more and more Syrians are being granted only subsidiary rather than full refugee status. Whereas 99.7 percent of Syrians coming to Germany in 2015 were classed as full refugees, last year only 38.2 percent were — with 61 percent enjoying only subsidiary protection.
The situation, say activists, is unacceptable.
"It's a scandal," Jens-Martin Rode of the Association of German-Syrian Assistance Groups, told DW. "We have around 700,000 people in Germany, the vast majority of whom have fled the Syrian regime. Requiring them to get passports from the Syrian Embassy is intolerable for a number of reasons." ……
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A true meaning of “stewing in one’s own juices” for years to come.
