Anas, Syria

Anas came to Denmark with his father in 2015, when he was 15 years old, and they were granted asylum. However, they were given the new status, paragraph 7(3), which meant they could only apply to get Anas' mother and two younger siblings out of Aleppo after a period of 3 years. Anas and his father Omar wrote about their unfortunate situation on Refugees Welcome's website in the spring of 2016.

Even before the law introducing a 3-year period before refugees are allowed to apply for family reunification was passed, the Danish Human Rights Institute had warned that it would be a violation of the right to family life.
 
The lawyer Christian Dahlager offered to take on the case and test it in the Danish courts as well as taking it all the way to the court in Strasbourg, if necessary. Anas and his father, as well as his father's two brothers who were in the same situation, accepted the offer. The family was featured in Politiken and on the front page of Amnesty Denmark's member magazine.

Unfortunately, both the High Court and the Supreme Court approved the 3-year waiting period, arguing that the Danish state had a legitimate intention to limit immigration. Meanwhile, Anas' mother and siblings were still in Aleppo. It was very difficult for Anas and his father to focus on learning Danish and living normally in safety in Denmark while Aleppo was under constant bombardment.

The lawyer subsequently took the case to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, where success was finally achieved in 2021 – but only on the grounds that the waiting period was too long. On that basis, the Danish authorities decided to reduce the waiting time from 3 to 2 years. This is still far too long, especially when you factor in the time it takes to flee and the processing times for both asylum and family reunification. The total time in which refugee families are separated often amounts to 4-5 years.