Erfurt (dpa/th) – The federal government has approved a state admissions program that allows Afghan relatives to come to Thuringia under certain conditions. The necessary agreement had been granted by the Federal Ministry of the Interior, said Migration Minister Dirk Adams (Greens) on Friday in Erfurt. This means that Afghan nationals who have had to flee their homeland as a result of the war and are seriously threatened by the Taliban taking power can be taken in by their relatives living in Thuringia.
The Afghans already living here must be in possession of a residence permit and have been resident in Thuringia for at least six months. In addition, they must undertake to pay for the accommodation and livelihood of family members joining them for a maximum of five years. Excluded from this are health costs, it said.
“We relieve the Afghans living here about their relatives, who fear revenge measures and reprisals by the militant Islamist Taliban,” said Adams. With this program, the recording systems would not be further burdened.
The people entering Thuringia in this way would not find accommodation either in the state’s initial reception center or in the apartments for refugees from Ukraine that are currently being prepared by the municipalities. Securing the livelihood does not burden the public coffers either, it said. A very similar state admissions program for Syrian nationals has been running in Thuringia since 2013.
Criticism of the new state admissions program came from the CDU parliamentary group. Minister Adams negates the dramatic situation in the municipalities and creates additional acceptance problems among the local people, said the CDU migration politician Stefan Schard. Any additional occupancy of affordable housing puts a strain on the reception systems. “Minister Adams is thus ignoring the decision of the state parliament not to create an additional state admissions program and is once again taking a special path at the expense of Thuringia.”
