The General Commission for Refugees and Stateless Persons (CGR) announces that it is temporarily suspending the processing of asylum applications from Syrians.
The General Commission for Refugees and Stateless Persons (CGRA) has decided to temporarily suspend the processing of asylum applications from Syrians, it said on Monday, confirming information from the daily De Standaard.
According to administration spokesperson Olivier Brasseur, the situation in Syria is currently too vague to assess the risk of a possible return. “We have decided today to temporarily suspend the processing of asylum applications from Syrians, except for people who benefit from status in another Member State of the European Union, since there is then no of fear towards the country of origin”he explained.
Concretely, the applications will be put “on hold” until the situation in the country becomes clearer. “In the meantime, people still have the right to be accommodated,” the spokesperson continued.
Over the past ten years, around 35,000 Syrians have benefited from protection from Belgium. In 2024, they will once again represent the leading nationality in terms of asylum applications (4,725).
The Secretary of State for Asylum and Migration, Nicole de Moor (CD&V), declared that she “asked (his) services to closely monitor the situation.” “Refugee status is not necessarily eternal. If the situation in Syria improves sustainably, I will ask the CGRS to re-examine the status of Syrians who arrived here in the last five years. But it is still too early for that” , she said, specifying that her services will not “not revoke the right of residence of people who have integrated here permanently and who, for example, work here, speak French well and have children of school age”.
“We can also help people who wish to return now. Our country has a well-developed support system for voluntary return,” added Ms De Moor.
Other European countries
Germany, the EU country which hosts the largest Syrian diaspora, has suspended decisions on ongoing asylum requests from Syrian exiles following the fall of Bashar al-Assad, the Minister of Defense announced on Monday. the Interior.
Given “the current uncertainty”, the Federal Office for Immigration and Refugees has “today decreed a freeze on decisions for asylum procedures currently still underway” Syrian exiles, Nancy Faeser said in a statement.
Austria has also decided to suspend asylum requests from refugees from this country and prepare “an expulsion program”. “From now on, all ongoing procedures will be stopped“, the Austrian Interior Ministry said in a statement.
Around 7,300 files are affected by this decision among the approximately 100,000 Syrians living in Austria, one of the countries which has welcomed the most in Europe.
“A sudden acceleration of events”
The cases of those who have already been granted asylum will also be reviewed. Family reunification is also suspended.
“In this context, I instructed the ministry to prepare a repatriation and expulsion program to Syria,” added Interior Minister Gerhard Karner. “The political situation in Syria has fundamentally changed, with a sudden acceleration of events in recent days”underlined the ministry, judging “important to reassess the situation.”
Since 2015, around 87,000 Syrians have received a positive response to their asylum request in the country of nine million inhabitants. But conservative Chancellor Karl Nehammer has toughened measures in recent years in the face of the surge of the far right, which won the legislative elections for the first time at the end of September. Lacking partners to govern, it is excluded from the ongoing negotiations to form a new government.
President Bashar al-Assad fled Syria, driven out by a spectacular offensive by Islamist rebels, a turning point in history which ended on Sunday half a century of unchallenged rule by his family clan.
While welcoming the fall of power, several countries have urged Syrians to avoid the trap of extremism.
Syria fall of Bashar al-Assad conflict in Syria bashar al-Assad
