On the Turkish-Syrian border, refugees hope to return home.
AFP
Austria and Germany announced on Monday, the day after the fall of Bashar al-Assad in Syria, that they would suspend asylum requests from refugees from that country.
Germany is the EU country with the largest Syrian diaspora.
Given the “current uncertainty”, the Federal Office for Immigration and Refugees has “decreed today a freeze on decisions regarding the asylum procedures currently still underway” for Syrian migrants, declared the Minister of Interior Nancy Faeser in a press release.
“The end of the brutal tyranny of Syrian dictator Assad is a great relief for many people who have suffered torture, murder and terror,” said the minister.
Many Syrians who have found refuge in Germany since the great migration crisis of 2015-2016 “now finally have the hope of returning to their Syrian homeland and rebuilding their country,” she adds.
Less than 48 hours after the overthrow of President Assad, the debate on the return of Syrian migrants has already been launched in Europe’s largest economy in the electoral campaign, notably by the far right and the conservative right.
The current situation in Syria, however, remains “very confused”, adds the Minister of the Interior, after the flight of the president chased by a spectacular offensive by Islamist rebels which ended on Sunday half a century of undivided reign of his clan family.
“The concrete possibilities of return are not yet predictable at the moment and it would not be serious to speculate on this subject in such a volatile situation,” she emphasizes again.
According to figures from the Ministry of the Interior, 974,136 people of Syrian nationality currently reside in Germany.
Of these, 5,090 were recognized as eligible for asylum, 321,444 were granted refugee status and 329,242 were granted subsidiary protection, a more temporary reprieve, while tens of thousands of other cases remain in effect. suspense.
-Foreign Ministry spokesman Sebastian Fischer stressed on Monday that fighting was still taking place in Syria.
“The fact that the Assad regime has ended is unfortunately not a guarantee of peaceful development,” he said at a press briefing.
It remains to be seen whether this new situation will lead to new migratory movements or “if, on the contrary, the situation stabilizes, and displaced people and refugees will have the opportunity to return to their homeland in the long term,” Fischer said. .
“Eviction Program”
For their part, the Austrian authorities also say they are preparing “an expulsion program”.
“From now on, all ongoing procedures will be stopped,” the 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.
The cases of those who have already been granted asylum will also be reviewed. Family reunification is also suspended.
“In this context, I have 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,” the ministry said, deeming it “important to reassess the situation.”
Since 2015, around 87,000 Syrians have received a positive response to their asylum application 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.
