Building a New Home: Family Comes Together After 11 Years

When Ahmed* had nowhere to stay in Athens and had to sleep in the streets, he only thought of his family back in Sudan.

He is now settled in Germany with his family, now consisting of him, his wife and three children. He looks at them and only remembers how hard the journey was.

“I was never settled; my whole life changed,” He said.

The journey for Ahmed was tough. In 2012, he made an irregular trip on foot to Germany. There, he applied for asylum, In 2019, he received a refugee status confirmation. In the same year, based on a psychiatrist’s diagnosis of the toll his separation from his wife and kids had on him, he got a travel document and met with his family in Egypt.

”Since I left my family behind, I suffered a lot. We were separated for 11 years! During this period, I visited many doctors, who diagnosed me with psychological difficulties caused by the separation from my family,” Ahmed said. “I suffered a lot and was constantly overthinking. I didn't know if I was human or not. It was a very difficult experience.”

With only his family in mind and the will to reunite with them, Ahmed was looking for organizations that could assist him. He was referred to the Family Assistance Programme (FAP) with the International Organization for Migration (IOM).

*The name Ahmed has been changed to protect the individual's identity. 

FAP offers regular migration pathways for migrants to reunite with their loved ones, cutting through the red tape that often makes such reunions seem impossible.

“My wife was added to my file with the IOM Family Assistance Programme. The IOM staff were very caring and supportive,” he said. “They helped me, following up on my psychological conditions and referring me to doctors for medical support.”

He submitted the necessary paperwork, providing information on his status as a refugee and his relationship with his wife and children. “The process was not easy,” he says, “but for the first time, I felt like there was a light at the end of this long tunnel.”

In 2021, his wife and children finally joined him in Germany. For the first time in over a decade, he felt that his life began to fall back into place. “I enrolled in a language school, earned my B1 certificate, and completed an integration course,” he said, a smile breaking through the years of pain. Ahmed and his family are among the 8,700 individuals assisted since 2021 by IOM with family reunification applications support to Germany through FAP-Sudan, and more than 5,900 families have been successfully reunited in Germany. The FAP helps process documents for direct family members having refugee status in Germany.

His eldest daughter, now 20 years old, did not enroll in formal education due to her age. Instead, she registered in a vocational school for nursing and has weekly shifts at an elderly care center. His two boys are in grades eight and nine in primary school.

*The name Ahmed has been changed to protect the individual's identity.