Fourteen-year-old Reem Sahwil and her family will be allowed to remain in Germany until at least October 2017

This article is more than 4 years old

This article is more than 4 years old

A Palestinian teenage asylum seeker who made headlines after bursting into tears in front of Angela Merkel during a televised debate has been granted residency for an extended period in Germany.



Reem Sahwil and her family will be allowed to remain in Germany until at least October 2017, according to the German newspaper Bild, which cited sources from immigration authorities in the northern city of Rostock. The paper said it was due to the family’s good integration into society.

Fourteen-year-old Reem was brought to tears at an event in July after explaining in fluent German that she and her family, who arrived in Rostock four years ago from a Lebanese refugee camp, faced deportation.

“I have goals like anyone else. I want to study like them … it’s very unpleasant to see how others can enjoy life and I can’t myself,” she told Merkel.

The chancellor responded by telling the teenager that she understood but that “politics is hard sometimes”. She went on to explain that Germany could not accept refugees from everywhere, adding: “We can’t cope with that.”

Angela Merkel comforts sobbing refugee but says Germany can't help everyone Read more

More than one million asylum seekers are expected to register in Germany this year, more than four times the number that arrived in 2014.

In his annual Christmas address, Germany’s president, Joachim Gauck, praised Germans who had volunteered to help the refugees. “We have shown what we are capable of – goodwill, professionalism, but also the art of improvisation,” he said.

He called for open discussion on how to deal with the numbers of people continuing to arrive in Germany, saying this was the only way to find “enduring solutions that will be supported by the majority”.