Merkel meets refugees at a Syrian restaurant in Berlin
Former German Chancellor Angela Merkel met with five refugees from Syria, Afghanistan, and Iran inside a Syrian restaurant in Berlin, in a meeting described by its organizers as "personal, unfiltered, and on equal footing," as part of a program prepared by WDRforyou.
This meeting comes ten years after Germany opened its doors to refugees in 2015, when Merkel stated her famous phrase "We can do it." The participants in the dialogue talked about the challenges they faced since arriving in Germany, including racism, integration difficulties, and their new beginnings.
Among the guests was a student who lived with her family under the protection of a church, and a young couple who faced protests in the town of Clausnitz upon their arrival in 2016. Merkel said during the meeting: "We talk a lot about the people who came to us, but we do not talk to them. And that is what I found very important." She emphasized that the goal of the dialogue is to truly listen to the experiences of refugees.
The full episode will be aired on June 30 on the ARD Mediathek platform, and excerpts will be published across various channels. Merkel also discussed current issues in the dialogue such as the rejection of asylum seekers at the borders, integration, and family reunification, which are topics that are currently causing widespread debate in Germany.
In this context, the German parliament recently approved a new law that suspends family reunification for families with limited protection status for two years. The law received broad support from various parties, including CDU/CSU, SPD, and AfD.