Nearly 200 refugees who were trying to reunite with their families in Germany left Greece on Monday, restarting a reunification program that stalled last year.

"The departure of the first 177 refugees is part of an administrative arrangement between Greece and Germany for the completion of family reunifications already approved by Germany," the Greek migration ministry told AFP.

The refugees, mostly from Syria, Afghanistan and Iraq, took a charter plane to Munich, according to the ministry. The ministry added that there would be more upcoming flights, as some 2,000 refugees are expected to rejoin their families in Germany with the program, a minister source told AFP.

Exchange between countries

In return, Greece and Spain will take back refugees who arrived in Germany after first requesting asylum in the previous two countries. This was agreed to between the three countries in June. There was no such agreement between Germany and Italy, a country that several thousand refugees arrived in previous years.

The reunification program was slowed down in 2017 for refugees with subsidiary protection in Germany before stopping altogether.

According to the Dublin Regulation, the European country that an asylum seeker is first processed in will handle their case. If one is granted asylum or refugee protection in Germany, they can - in general - bring their family with them. For unaccompanied children, they can bring their siblings and parents.