"The news was devastating for me and my family and gave me stomach pain." This was Nasser's state of mind following the news that he would only receive subsidiary protection in Germany instead of full asylum. Nasser left Syria in June 2015, having fled Aleppo, where he said he witnessed a "world war" with his own eyes.

Subsidiary protection only allows a refugee to stay in Germany for one year, instead of the three years under full asylum. It also doesn't allow the refugee to invite his family to his new country. For Nasser, not being allowed to bring his family together led him to contemplate suicide. "After an entire year and a half of waiting in hearings, I didn't receive full asylum," he told InfoMigrants. The reason was that there was a lack of evidence that he was persecuted in his home country. "Would I have to go to ISIS or one of the opposition groups in Syria and get a certificate to prove that I am persecuted?" he asked.

Insufficient proof of persecution

While waiting for his asylum hearings, Nasser tried to do his best to learn German. Although the young Syrian was staying at a reception center in Dortmund, he went to a university in Bochum every day to learn the language. After becoming proficient, he thought he would go to look for a job. He believed these efforts could help convince the authorities to grant him full asylum. "I joined a professional training course in programming because it was my field of expertise, but the level of German was not enough to keep up with the work in the company," he said.        

Nasser didn't give up and started looking for other work. He found a job at a fast food restaurant, but in the end, his subsidiary protection status did not change. "What hurts the most was I was getting ready to see my wife come to Germany and we had many phone calls about it. My daughter was spending all her time learning German through Youtube videos," he said.

Nasser's story is similar to many other newcomers in Germany. Ammar from Syria attempted to throw  himself in front of a train in Leipzig in a suicide attempt. One of his friends intervened and saved him at the last moment. His friend who saved him, Adel, spoke to the German Tagesschau program about the experience.

After Ammar fled with his wife from Aleppo, Syria to Turkey, his uncle convinced him to go to Germany. He decided to go to Germany, leaving his wife and three children behind, in the hopes that they would be reunited in Germany. But this was a far away dream. Ammar's family stayed for long periods on the Greek-Macedonian border. Ammar felt a deep guilt, as he had paid a large sum of money to come to Germany and his family was left behind.

Why are the attempts increasing? 

According to the German Tagesschau program, the number of suicide attempts by refugees in Germany has reached 433 cases. What's important to mention is that these numbers are not complete and don't contain the cases from all the German states.

Although there are some centers that help refugees deal with psychological trauma and provide counseling for them, Andrea Domke who works for migrant families at the Caritas Center in Cologne told InfoMigrants that there are many other cases that receive little attention. "Parents bear a great psychological burden when they arrive in Germany and their families are still in Syria or in any other country" Domke said.

What makes it even worse is "the nervousness of these parents that their asylum applications will not be accepted and the fear of deportation," Domke added. Many refugees have unstable lives and lack a good outlook on the future. "The racially motivated attacks toward refugees also increase their frustration," she noted. The refugees may have also experienced a dangerous escape journey from their home countries.  

According to the estimates of the Federal Association of Psychosocial Centers for Refugees and Victims of Torture, 30 to 40 percent of refugees arriving in Germany suffer from "post-traumatic stress disorder." According to the association, refugees do not often receive full health care and psychotherapy is often difficult to provide. It is not clear what criteria has been adopted in estimating which psychological cases get treated or not. In any case, most requests for psychiatric treatment on behalf of the refugees are rejected.

For Ammer, who tried to commit suicide twice, the only treatment was to return to Greece to stay with his family. For Nasser, his family was forced to venture across the sea to reach Germany.