Thread: The Latest: Germany OKs some refugee kids bringing families

Feb. 11, 20165:58 AM ET

BRUSSELS (AP) — The Latest on the massive influx of migrants into Europe (all times local):

11:50 a.m.

The German government has agreed to allow unaccompanied child refugees to bring over their families in certain hardship cases.

The Cabinet-level agreement Thursday ends a spat between Angela Merkel's conservative bloc and the center-left Social Democrats that had held up a reform of asylum rules in Germany.

The deal means a halt to all family reunification except when "urgent humanitarian reasons" justify that parents of minors who have applied for asylum in Germany receive protection too.

The government has rushed to introduce a string of measures to slow the influx of refugees to Germany after almost 1.1 million people applied for asylum in the country last year.

The campaign group Deutsches Kinderhilfswerk criticized the agreement, saying it breaches Germany's obligations under the U.N. Convention on the Rights of the Child.

11:10 a.m.

U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter says NATO military authorities have been ordered to draw up plans for how the alliance could help shut down illegal migration and people smuggling across the Aegean Sea.

Carter made the announcement at a Thursday press conference after three NATO allies —Turkey, Germany and Greece— requested alliance participation in an international effort to help end Europe's gravest migration crisis since World War II.

The three countries made the request at a NATO defense ministers' meeting in Brussels. NATO ministers "tasked NATO military authorities to provide its advice for options for implementing it," said Carter.

Carter says those recommendations will be reviewed by NATO's Military Committee and submitted to the North Atlantic Council, NATO's chief decision-making body.

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German alliance promotes solidarity, acceptance amid refugee crisis

Representatives from charities, religious groups and unions have called for more objectivity in the debate about refugees. It is an appeal against racism and in favor of finding solutions.

"Human dignity is inviolable" is the title of the appeal, whose 10 signatories aim to promote "openness, solidarity, democracy and the rule of law in Germany and Europe."

The signatories include representatives from religious groups, unions, employers' associations and various charities. They are urging fellow Germans to continue to be peaceful and show solidarity in the refugee crisis.

According to the "Alliance for Openness, Solidarity, Democracy and the Rule of Law" as quoted by German weekly "Die Zeit," the current debate about refugees and immigration should be "objective and focused on solutions" instead of "publicly stoking fears and resentment."

Unique alliance

The cross-party initiative also urges people to "stand up against inhuman statements and acts, regardless of where they come from and who they are directed at."

The signatories want "far-right, inhuman attacks on refugees and their homes, on police, on members of the press and aid workers to be systematically prosecuted."

Wherever someone violates the state's monopoly on violence or breaks the law, he or she must be prosecuted. The appeal points out that the rule also applies to foreign nationals, who must face deportation if convicted.

The alliance, which is to be formally launched in Berlin on Thursday, is the first of its kind in Germany.

ng/kms (epd, AFP)

German alliance promotes solidarity, acceptance amid refugee crisis | News | DW.COM | 11.02.2016