European countries suspend Syrian asylum decisions after Assad’s fall
By AFP
December 9, 2024
Syrian refugees celebrated the fall of president Bashar al-Assad - Copyright NYPD/AFP -
Britain, Germany, France, Italy and several other European countries said Monday they would freeze all pending asylum requests from Syrians, a day after the ouster of president Bashar al-Assad.
While Berlin and other governments said they were watching the fast-moving developments in the war-ravaged nation, Austria signalled it would soon deport refugees back to Syria.
Far-right politicians elsewhere made similar demands, including in Germany — home to Europe’s largest Syrian community — at a time when immigration has become a hot-button issue across the continent.
Alice Weidel, of the anti-immigration Alternative for Germany, reacted with disdain to Sunday’s mass rallies by jubilant Syrians celebrating Assad’s downfall.
“Anyone in Germany who celebrates ‘free Syria’ evidently no longer has any reason to flee,” she wrote on X. “They should return to Syria immediately.”
World leaders and Syrians abroad watched in disbelief at the weekend as Islamist-led rebels swept into Damascus, ending Assad’s brutal rule while also sparking new uncertainty.
A German foreign ministry spokesman pointed out that “the fact that the Assad regime has been ended is unfortunately no guarantee of peaceful developments” in the future.
Germany has taken in almost one million Syrians, with most arriving in 2015-16 under ex-chancellor Angela Merkel.
Interior Minister Nancy Faeser said many Syrian refugees “now finally have hope of returning to their Syrian homeland” but cautioned that “the situation in Syria is currently very unclear”.
The Federal Office for Migration and Refugees had imposed a freeze on decisions for ongoing asylum procedures “until the situation is clearer”.
She added that “concrete possibilities of return cannot yet be predicted and it would be unprofessional to speculate in such a volatile situation”.
Rights group Amnesty International slammed Germany’s freeze on asylum decisions, stressing that for now “the human rights situation in the country is completely unclear”.
The head of the UN refugee agency also cautioned that “patience and vigilance” were needed on the issue of refugee returns.
– ‘Repatriation and deportation’ –
In Austria, where about 100,000 Syrians live, conservative Chancellor Karl Nehammer instructed the interior ministry “to suspend all ongoing Syrian asylum applications and to review all asylum grants”.
Interior Minister Gerhard Karner added he had “instructed the ministry to prepare an orderly repatriation and deportation programme to Syria”.
“The political situation in Syria has changed fundamentally and, above all, rapidly in recent days,” the ministry said, adding it is “currently monitoring and analysing the new situation”.
The French interior ministry said it too would put asylum requests from Syrians on hold, with authorities in Belgium, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Denmark, Sweden and Norway announcing similar moves.
Britain’s interior ministry said it was taking the same measure “whilst we assess the current situation”.
The Italian government said late Monday after a cabinet meeting that it too was suspending asylum request “in line with other European partners.”
The leader of the far-right Sweden Democrats, a coalition partner in the government, said residence permits for Syrian refugees should now be “reviewed”.
“Destructive Islamist forces are behind the change of power” in Syria, wrote their leader Jimmie Akesson on X.
“I see that groups are happy about this development here in Sweden. You should see it as a good opportunity to go home.”
In Greece, a government spokesman voiced hope that Assad’s fall will eventually allow “the safe return of Syrian refugees” to their country, but without announcing concrete measures.
– ‘Populist and irresponsible’ –
In Germany, the debate gained momentum as the country heads towards February elections.
Achim Brotel, president of a grouping of German communes, called for border controls to stop fleeing Assad loyalists reaching Germany.
The centre-right opposition CDU suggested that rejected Syrian asylum-seekers should now lose so-called subsidiary protection.
“If the reason for protection no longer applies, then refugees will have to return to their home country,” CDU legislator Thorsten Frei told Welt TV.
CDU MP Jens Spahn suggested that Berlin charter flights to Syria and offer 1,000 euros ($1,057) to “anyone who wants to return”.
A member of Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s Social Democrats criticised the debate as “populist and irresponsible”.
Greens party deputy Anton Hofreiter also said “it is completely unclear what will happen next in Syria” and deportation talk was “completely out of place”.
Many Syrians in Germany have watched the events in their home country with great joy but prefer to wait and see before deciding whether to return.
“We want to go back to Syria,” said Mahmoud Zaml, 25, who works in an Arabic pastry shop in Berlin, adding that he hopes to help “rebuild” his country.
“But we have to wait a bit now,” he told AFP. “We have to see what happens and if it is really 100 percent safe, then we will go back to Syria.”
burs-fz/rlp/phz/gv/giv
By AFP
December 9, 2024
Syrian refugees celebrated the fall of president Bashar al-Assad - Copyright NYPD/AFP -
Britain, Germany, France, Italy and several other European countries said Monday they would freeze all pending asylum requests from Syrians, a day after the ouster of president Bashar al-Assad.
While Berlin and other governments said they were watching the fast-moving developments in the war-ravaged nation, Austria signalled it would soon deport refugees back to Syria.
Far-right politicians elsewhere made similar demands, including in Germany — home to Europe’s largest Syrian community — at a time when immigration has become a hot-button issue across the continent.
Alice Weidel, of the anti-immigration Alternative for Germany, reacted with disdain to Sunday’s mass rallies by jubilant Syrians celebrating Assad’s downfall.
“Anyone in Germany who celebrates ‘free Syria’ evidently no longer has any reason to flee,” she wrote on X. “They should return to Syria immediately.”
World leaders and Syrians abroad watched in disbelief at the weekend as Islamist-led rebels swept into Damascus, ending Assad’s brutal rule while also sparking new uncertainty.
A German foreign ministry spokesman pointed out that “the fact that the Assad regime has been ended is unfortunately no guarantee of peaceful developments” in the future.
Germany has taken in almost one million Syrians, with most arriving in 2015-16 under ex-chancellor Angela Merkel.
Interior Minister Nancy Faeser said many Syrian refugees “now finally have hope of returning to their Syrian homeland” but cautioned that “the situation in Syria is currently very unclear”.
The Federal Office for Migration and Refugees had imposed a freeze on decisions for ongoing asylum procedures “until the situation is clearer”.
She added that “concrete possibilities of return cannot yet be predicted and it would be unprofessional to speculate in such a volatile situation”.
Rights group Amnesty International slammed Germany’s freeze on asylum decisions, stressing that for now “the human rights situation in the country is completely unclear”.
The head of the UN refugee agency also cautioned that “patience and vigilance” were needed on the issue of refugee returns.
– ‘Repatriation and deportation’ –
In Austria, where about 100,000 Syrians live, conservative Chancellor Karl Nehammer instructed the interior ministry “to suspend all ongoing Syrian asylum applications and to review all asylum grants”.
Interior Minister Gerhard Karner added he had “instructed the ministry to prepare an orderly repatriation and deportation programme to Syria”.
“The political situation in Syria has changed fundamentally and, above all, rapidly in recent days,” the ministry said, adding it is “currently monitoring and analysing the new situation”.
The French interior ministry said it too would put asylum requests from Syrians on hold, with authorities in Belgium, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Denmark, Sweden and Norway announcing similar moves.
Britain’s interior ministry said it was taking the same measure “whilst we assess the current situation”.
The Italian government said late Monday after a cabinet meeting that it too was suspending asylum request “in line with other European partners.”
The leader of the far-right Sweden Democrats, a coalition partner in the government, said residence permits for Syrian refugees should now be “reviewed”.
“Destructive Islamist forces are behind the change of power” in Syria, wrote their leader Jimmie Akesson on X.
“I see that groups are happy about this development here in Sweden. You should see it as a good opportunity to go home.”
In Greece, a government spokesman voiced hope that Assad’s fall will eventually allow “the safe return of Syrian refugees” to their country, but without announcing concrete measures.
– ‘Populist and irresponsible’ –
In Germany, the debate gained momentum as the country heads towards February elections.
Achim Brotel, president of a grouping of German communes, called for border controls to stop fleeing Assad loyalists reaching Germany.
The centre-right opposition CDU suggested that rejected Syrian asylum-seekers should now lose so-called subsidiary protection.
“If the reason for protection no longer applies, then refugees will have to return to their home country,” CDU legislator Thorsten Frei told Welt TV.
CDU MP Jens Spahn suggested that Berlin charter flights to Syria and offer 1,000 euros ($1,057) to “anyone who wants to return”.
A member of Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s Social Democrats criticised the debate as “populist and irresponsible”.
Greens party deputy Anton Hofreiter also said “it is completely unclear what will happen next in Syria” and deportation talk was “completely out of place”.
Many Syrians in Germany have watched the events in their home country with great joy but prefer to wait and see before deciding whether to return.
“We want to go back to Syria,” said Mahmoud Zaml, 25, who works in an Arabic pastry shop in Berlin, adding that he hopes to help “rebuild” his country.
“But we have to wait a bit now,” he told AFP. “We have to see what happens and if it is really 100 percent safe, then we will go back to Syria.”
burs-fz/rlp/phz/gv/giv
REFUGEES after Assad regime falls
Belgium, Germany, Greece and Austria said they will halt Syrian asylum applications one day after rebel forces ousted the country’s dictator.
Some countries, such as Austria, Belgium, and Germany are using the quick work of rebel forces in Syria to revise their migration policies. | Fehim Demir/EPA-EFE
December 9, 2024
By Seb Starcevic, Dan Bloom and Nektaria Stamouli
Belgium, Germany, Greece and Austria said they will halt Syrian asylum applications one day after rebel forces ousted the country’s dictator.
Some countries, such as Austria, Belgium, and Germany are using the quick work of rebel forces in Syria to revise their migration policies. | Fehim Demir/EPA-EFE
December 9, 2024
By Seb Starcevic, Dan Bloom and Nektaria Stamouli
POLITICO EU
BRUSSELS — Austria has announced plans to deport Syrian migrants following the fall of the country’s dictator Bashar Assad to rebel forces after 13 years of civil war, while France, Belgium and Germany are also working to pause Syrian asylum applications.
“I have instructed the ministry to prepare an orderly return and deportation program to Syria,” Interior Minister Gerhard Karner told Austrian media, without clarifying which migration statuses would be targeted. Some 100,000 Syrians live in Austria, according to Austria’s statistics agency.
Some countries, such as Austria, Belgium, Greece and Germany are using the quick work of rebel forces in Syria to revise their migration policies, with all four closing the door to asylum seekers one day after Syrian rebel forces toppled Damascus on Sunday night. In fewer than 10 days, rebels ended decades of rule by the Assad family, which has run Syria since a coup in 1970.
The decisions to revise asylum policies across European countries come as anti-immigrant far-right parties have surged in popularity across the European Union in recent months. Germany, for example, faces snap elections in February, with far-right parties currently topping the polls.
Germany’s Federal Office for Migration and Refugees (BAMF) said it will freeze asylum applications for more than 47,000 Syrian nationals, a spokesperson for BAMF told German media. Syria was the top country of origin for asylum seekers in Germany this year, according to BAMF.
On Monday, Greece put a hold on processing 9,000 Syrian asylum applications, a senior government official, who was granted anonymity to speak about the sensitive matter, told POLITICO. The official added the government will decide Friday whether they will stop processing applications from Syria completely.
Belgium also announced the applications of more than 3,000 Syrians have been put on hold.
“We decided today to stop handling Syrian asylum applications for the time being,” a spokesperson for Belgium’s Commissioner General for Refugees and Stateless Persons (CGRS) said.
A civil war broke out in Syria following country-wide protests in 2011, culminating in the Arab Spring and Assad’s subsequent crackdown on dissent. Nearly 600,000 Syrians have been killed during the fighting since then, while millions more have fled to neighboring countries and further afield, including Europe. Assad, who was in power for 25 years until fleeing to Moscow with his family, has been accused of torture and of using chemical weapons on his own people.
After the news broke of the victory of the rebel factions, led by Islamist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), thousands of Syrians took to the streets of European capitals Sunday to celebrate the end of the regime.
Other countries are now also mulling over putting an end to asylum for Syrian applicants.
An official from France’s Interior Ministry said it will seek “to put a stop to the avalanche of appeals on asylum applications from Syrians.” They are, the official added, “working on a suspension of current asylum applications from Syria.”
But even before the fall of the Assad regime, European countries have said they have struggled to accommodate Syrian nationals.
The decisions to revise asylum policies across European countries come as anti-immigrant far-right parties have surged in popularity across the European Union. | Vladimir Simicek/AFP via Getty Images
In 2015, more than 1 million Syrians made their way by land and sea to Europe at the height of the civil war in the country. Since then, more than 4.5 million Syrians have settled in Europe. Cyprus paused asylum applications from Syria in August, saying it was struggling to cope with the “mass arrival” of migrants.
In October, some EU countries, led by Italy, pushed to normalize ties with Syria in order to facilitate the deportation of migrants.
With the ouster of Assad, Europe now must deal with HTS, which is considered a terrorist group by the United States and the United Kingdom.
Asked if the U.K. would suspend asylum claims from Syria, a spokesperson for Prime Minister Keir Starmer told reporters Monday: “As you’ll appreciate, it’s an evolving situation, things are moving quickly. As the PM has said in his interviews the priority now is the safety of Syrian civilians and a political solution to the unfolding events.”
But they added: “On asylum applications, all applications are based on individual merit, and we keep our country guidance under constant review and we will of course consider how the situation in Syria impacts the U.K. asylum system, but I haven’t got any updates on that specifically right now.”
On Monday the EU’s executive arm announced the bloc is “not engaging with HTS or its leaders, full stop,” according to its spokesperson Anouar El Anouni, raising questions on how various countries will reconcile their new limits on migration.
“As HTS takes on greater responsibilities, we will need to assess not just their words, but also their actions,” Anouni added.
Several politicians from Germany’s center-right CDU party have spoken out in favor of returning many of the country’s 800,000 Syrians to their homeland in the past 24 hours.
At a Greek government briefing Monday, spokesman Pavlos Marinakis said Greece hopes for the smooth return of Syrian refugees to their homes. “The return to democratic normality makes us be cautiously optimistic, to expect the possible return of many refugees, people who suffered due to the situation in Syria,” said Marinakis.
BRUSSELS — Austria has announced plans to deport Syrian migrants following the fall of the country’s dictator Bashar Assad to rebel forces after 13 years of civil war, while France, Belgium and Germany are also working to pause Syrian asylum applications.
“I have instructed the ministry to prepare an orderly return and deportation program to Syria,” Interior Minister Gerhard Karner told Austrian media, without clarifying which migration statuses would be targeted. Some 100,000 Syrians live in Austria, according to Austria’s statistics agency.
Some countries, such as Austria, Belgium, Greece and Germany are using the quick work of rebel forces in Syria to revise their migration policies, with all four closing the door to asylum seekers one day after Syrian rebel forces toppled Damascus on Sunday night. In fewer than 10 days, rebels ended decades of rule by the Assad family, which has run Syria since a coup in 1970.
The decisions to revise asylum policies across European countries come as anti-immigrant far-right parties have surged in popularity across the European Union in recent months. Germany, for example, faces snap elections in February, with far-right parties currently topping the polls.
Germany’s Federal Office for Migration and Refugees (BAMF) said it will freeze asylum applications for more than 47,000 Syrian nationals, a spokesperson for BAMF told German media. Syria was the top country of origin for asylum seekers in Germany this year, according to BAMF.
On Monday, Greece put a hold on processing 9,000 Syrian asylum applications, a senior government official, who was granted anonymity to speak about the sensitive matter, told POLITICO. The official added the government will decide Friday whether they will stop processing applications from Syria completely.
Belgium also announced the applications of more than 3,000 Syrians have been put on hold.
“We decided today to stop handling Syrian asylum applications for the time being,” a spokesperson for Belgium’s Commissioner General for Refugees and Stateless Persons (CGRS) said.
A civil war broke out in Syria following country-wide protests in 2011, culminating in the Arab Spring and Assad’s subsequent crackdown on dissent. Nearly 600,000 Syrians have been killed during the fighting since then, while millions more have fled to neighboring countries and further afield, including Europe. Assad, who was in power for 25 years until fleeing to Moscow with his family, has been accused of torture and of using chemical weapons on his own people.
After the news broke of the victory of the rebel factions, led by Islamist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), thousands of Syrians took to the streets of European capitals Sunday to celebrate the end of the regime.
Other countries are now also mulling over putting an end to asylum for Syrian applicants.
An official from France’s Interior Ministry said it will seek “to put a stop to the avalanche of appeals on asylum applications from Syrians.” They are, the official added, “working on a suspension of current asylum applications from Syria.”
But even before the fall of the Assad regime, European countries have said they have struggled to accommodate Syrian nationals.
The decisions to revise asylum policies across European countries come as anti-immigrant far-right parties have surged in popularity across the European Union. | Vladimir Simicek/AFP via Getty ImagesIn 2015, more than 1 million Syrians made their way by land and sea to Europe at the height of the civil war in the country. Since then, more than 4.5 million Syrians have settled in Europe. Cyprus paused asylum applications from Syria in August, saying it was struggling to cope with the “mass arrival” of migrants.
In October, some EU countries, led by Italy, pushed to normalize ties with Syria in order to facilitate the deportation of migrants.
With the ouster of Assad, Europe now must deal with HTS, which is considered a terrorist group by the United States and the United Kingdom.
Asked if the U.K. would suspend asylum claims from Syria, a spokesperson for Prime Minister Keir Starmer told reporters Monday: “As you’ll appreciate, it’s an evolving situation, things are moving quickly. As the PM has said in his interviews the priority now is the safety of Syrian civilians and a political solution to the unfolding events.”
But they added: “On asylum applications, all applications are based on individual merit, and we keep our country guidance under constant review and we will of course consider how the situation in Syria impacts the U.K. asylum system, but I haven’t got any updates on that specifically right now.”
On Monday the EU’s executive arm announced the bloc is “not engaging with HTS or its leaders, full stop,” according to its spokesperson Anouar El Anouni, raising questions on how various countries will reconcile their new limits on migration.
“As HTS takes on greater responsibilities, we will need to assess not just their words, but also their actions,” Anouni added.
Several politicians from Germany’s center-right CDU party have spoken out in favor of returning many of the country’s 800,000 Syrians to their homeland in the past 24 hours.
At a Greek government briefing Monday, spokesman Pavlos Marinakis said Greece hopes for the smooth return of Syrian refugees to their homes. “The return to democratic normality makes us be cautiously optimistic, to expect the possible return of many refugees, people who suffered due to the situation in Syria,” said Marinakis.
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