Lebanese community in Germany fears the worst as threat of war looms

Pouring over the news from his native Lebanon has become a daily ritual for Shahed Naji, who has watched as the country is hit by increasingly deadly attacks from Israel.

Naji has been living in Berlin for nearly 10 years now, coming to attend university and eventually working as a yoga instructor before founding two yoga studios in the German capital.

For him and his friends and family back in Lebanon, the crisis hits close to home.

“Kind of panicking, waking up in the middle of the night to check the news,” says Naji of his daily routine.

“This is the first time that real bombing starts happening, north of Beirut, and my family comes from the north. So I was just on a call with them and they said they can hear fighter jets very low,” Naji said.

Naji’s nephew, Yahya Naji, fled from Beirut where he was attending university studying computer science, to the north for safety. He was already looking to go to school in Germany and says that now the motivation to leave Lebanon is even stronger.

“The attacks have a wide range, and includes the possibility of you being next if you just go around the corner. So you have to leave,” Yahya said.

After the October 7 attacks in Israel, the German government allowed Israeli visitors to stay temporarily without applying for a residence permit or an extension. 

Euronews asked if such a program would be prepared for Lebanese citizens, however Germany’s Interior Ministry responded that, currently, such regulations do not exist for Lebanese citizens. 

More than 47,000 Lebanese nationals currently live in Germany, but others might have a tougher time entering the country as Germany looks towards tightening its stance on migration.

The far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, who campaigned to increase deportations, came in first in a state election this month in a party first.

Although the AfD are not in a position to impact legislation, Germany’s ruling coalition government has seemingly tightened controls on migration in response to the AfD’s success — including imposing border checks on the country’s frontiers.

The Interior Ministry says statistics are not yet available for this month on how many Lebanese nationals have applied for asylum. 

But Naji says the political atmosphere gives him little hope his family can join him in safety. 

“I would definitely try to get them to Germany, if it’s possible. But again, with the current policies and what’s happening within Germany and the last elections results, I don’t think this is possible… unless something drastic changed, and Germany, or the EU decided to open asylum for people escaping from the war in Lebanon,” Naji said.