The deadly quake has killed more than 25,000 people.
Berlin:
Germany will issue three-month visas to earthquake victims in Turkey and Syria who have family members in the country, Germany’s interior minister said on Saturday.
“This is emergency aid,” German Interior Minister Nancy Feser told Bild.
“We want to allow Turkish or Syrian families in Germany to bring their close relatives home from disaster areas without bureaucracy.”
The deadly quake has killed more than 25,000 people.
Those who qualify can get a “regular visa, issued quickly and valid for three months,” Faeser said.
She added that the joint initiative with the foreign ministry would enable victims to “find shelter and receive treatment” in Germany.
Some 2.9 million people of Turkish origin live in Germany, more than half of whom have Turkish citizenship.
The Syrian community is also large, an estimated 924,000 since former German Chancellor Angela Merkel opened the border to refugees in 2015 and 2016.
In 2014 there were 118,000 Syrians in Germany.
(Aside from the title, this story is unedited by NDTV staff and published via a syndicated feed.)
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