(Reuters) Germany on Wednesday resumed family reunifications for some refugees, drawing ire from leftist groups who said a cap of 1,000 people a month was too little and a far-right party opposed to immigration altogether.
The government in 2016 suspended the right to bring in immediate family members for asylum seekers granted limited protection in a move to ease the burden on social workers handling a record influx of a million migrants.
The ban did not apply to asylum applicants granted full refugee status as they have a constitutional right to invite their families to join them.
After big losses to an anti-immigrant party in an election last year, Chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservatives and their Social Democrat (SPD) junior coalition partners agreed on a compromise to partially lift the ban from Aug. 1, 2018.
