Berlin offers fast-track visa option for Turkish earthquake victims
12 Feb 2023 11:30am
Germany's foreign and interior ministries announced plans to enable Turkish people who have relatives in Germany to come to stay with them.
Berlin is keen to provide relief as the death toll from the earthquakes that hit in Turkey and Syria surpassed a staggering 25,000 on Saturday, days after the region was jolted by the powerful quakes.
Germany's foreign and interior ministries announced plans to enable Turkish people who have relatives in Germany to come to stay with them.
Tens of thousands of people in Germany have Turkish roots, with Turkish people the nation's largest immigrant group, due to the guest worker policy adopted by the German government in the 1950s.
"As the German government, we want to help ensure that families in Germany can temporarily take in relatives affected by the earthquake if they no longer have a roof over their heads or need medical treatment," said Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock.
The two ministries have set up a task force which is starting work this weekend. "The goal is to make the visa process for these cases as unbureaucratic as possible." She also said her ministry had raised staff numbers at its missions abroad and redeployed capacity at visa processing centres in Turkey.
"It's about helping in an emergency. We want to make it possible for Turkish or Syrian families in Germany to bring close relatives from the disaster region to join them without red tape," said Interior Minister Nancy Faeser in a tweet.
She said this would be done with regular visas, which would be swiftly issued and remain valid for three months.
Baerbock said, "In the grief and dismay over the many thousands of dead after the earthquake, a glimmer of hope for me is the huge commitment of hundreds of thousands of people in our country who not only sympathise, but pitch in and find ways to help, for example with donations."
Many people here had relatives in Turkey whom they wanted to take in and for whom they were willing to vouch, she said.
The accelerated and priority visas are intended to benefit people who have been particularly affected individually by the disaster, who may be in danger of becoming homeless for example or have suffered injuries that require treatment, dpa has learned.
The scheme is designed for earthquake victims who wish to seek refuge in Germany and stay with first- or second-degree family members who are either German citizens or who have a permanent residence permit. - Bernama
