Thousands of Syrian refugees are attempting to leave Germany despite being legally entitled to stay, according to a report to be aired Thursday on German public broadcaster ARD.
Stuck in Germany without close relatives because of Berlin’s refusal to allow family reunions, the refugees were said to be using traffickers to reach their families in Turkey, saying “we’d rather die together than live apart.”
The journey, now in reverse, retraces the same risky routes they used from the outset of Syria’s six-year war, reported Panorama, a Hamburg-based investigative program and its offshoot channel Strg_F.
The reports coincided Thursday with a European Court of Justice (ECJ) ruling in favor of family reunions for juvenile refugees entering adulthood.
One smuggler told reporters he was guiding 50 individuals, mostly Syrians with right of residency in Germany, from EU member Greece into Turkey across the border river Evros to be reunited with family members in a Turkish refuge.
The crossing cost about 200 euros ($247), he said. Without visas, they were entering Turkey with whom the EU struck a multi-billion-euro refugee deal in 2016 to close sea routes leading into Balkan nations such as Serbia.
Syrians were exchanging information of “reverse escapes,” on social media said Parorama and Strg_F, the German equivalent of the computer keyboard combination of Control F.