German official proposes restricted Syrian asylum status

Government spokesman Steffen Seibert said on Twitter on Friday that Germany was “sticking to the practice now in place”.

Peter Altmaier is downplaying a short-lived initiative by the interior minister Thomas de Maiziere to give many Syrians restricted asylum, insisting that the matter is settled and procedures remain unchanged.

This statement came after Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere told German radio that Syrians would be given shorter residence permits and denied the right to be reunited with their families.

Her government was forced to clarify there had been no change in policy. They deployed 1,100 officers to prevent clashes and used pepper spray at one point but said otherwise there were no significant incidents.

However, he said, in light of the decision Thursday on limiting a few people’s ability to bring relatives to Germany, “there is need for discussion in the coalition, and so things will now stay as they are until there is a new decision”.

Since then, de Maziere has also secured the support for placing restrictions on Syrian refugees from both Seehofer and the nation’s powerful Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble, who is a key member of Merkel’s conservative Christian Democrats. The coalition also agreed to set up between three and five registration centers across the country where migrants with slim prospect of being granted asylum would have their claims expeditiously reviewed and could face immediate deportation if rejected.

Germany has seen 758,000 asylum-seekers arrive between January and October this year. Seehofer told German newspaper Sueddeutsche Zeitung that the status of Syrian refugees should be individually checked.

Police officials estimated that almost 5,000 people showed up for the main anti-refugee protest march that was organized by the eurosceptic and populist-nationalist party Alternative for Germany (AfD) under the banner “Asylum Has Its Limits – Red Card for Merkel”.

The emotional debate over Europe’s biggest refugee crisis since World War II is tearing at German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s left-right coalition government, exposing deep rifts and even open dissent.

Under the existing rules, those who are given full refugee status are entitled to bring their family members to Germany to live with them.

Many other European Union countries have been reluctant to take a significant number.

Still, de Maziere’s remarks added to the sense of confusion surrounding Berlin’s attempts to hammer out a comprehensive response to the refugee crisis that has hit the nation in recent months.