The Ministry of the Interior announced on Monday, December 9, its desire to suspend asylum applications coming from Syria after the change of regime in the Middle Eastern country. A decision encouraged by the far right, which the left opposes
An end of the regime synonymous with the end of asylum? The Ministry of the Interior, still led by the resigning minister Bruno Retailleau, announced on Monday December 9 its intention to question the asylum requests of Syrian refugees. After the fall of Bashar al-Assad's regime, Beauvau explained “working on a suspension of ongoing asylum cases from Syria”. In the process, Ofpra, the independent organization responsible for managing refugees, tempered these comments explaining that reflection was still taking place “in the event of a developing situation in a country of origin of asylum seekers”.
The far right took up the subject, supporting the idea put forward by Bruno Retailleau. “We can legitimately consider suspending the processing of asylum applications linked to Syria”launched Jordan Bardella, this Tuesday, December 10 on TF1. The president of the National Rally wants to go even further, to the point of expelling Syrian refugees: “We flee a regime because we are threatened by this regime. From the moment this regime has fallen, we can legitimately study the return to the country of origin.” Same story for Marine Le Pen who argued in front of the press at the Assembly that the freezing of asylum requests by certain European countries was “a first step. But I think we need to organize their return to their country.”.
An “abuse of power” for the rebels
On the left, the rebels, through the voice of the president of the LFI group in the Assembly, Mathilde Panot, denounced the idea of the Ministry of the Interior. “It seems hypocritical and dangerous to us that France is announcing, through the voice of the resigning Minister of the Interior […]suspend the examination of asylum applications from Syrians”decided the member for Val-de-Marne. The rebel has also denounced a “abuse of power on the part of this resigned government”supposed to stick to the management of current affairs. A position shared by environmentalist MP Léa Balage El Mariky: “It is outside the framework of current or urgent affairs, a framework in which Bruno Retailleau is now forced as a resigning minister, estimated the elected official with Liberation. And above all, it is contrary to international law which provides that asylum is an individual right.”
It is on this point that the socialist Arthur Delaporte also insisted, denouncing the offensive of the Ministry of the Interior against “an inalienable right”. For the Calvados deputy, questioned by Released, he is “irresponsible to send such a signal, when we do not know what will happen in the coming weeks in Syria”. A dissonant voice on the left, the national secretary of the French Communist Party, Fabien Roussel, spoke to him this Tuesday morning on France Info about a “precautionary measure, indeed, because today there are terrorists in Syria, among those who overthrew the dictator Bashar al-Assad”.
France remains far from the European countries which welcome the most Syrian exiles on their soil, since it will have around 44,000 Syrian exiles in 2024, according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. Far behind Germany which welcomes nearly 716,000, or Austria where 97,000 refugees from Syria live.
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