En masse, the countries of Europe are “freezing” grant applications asylum which they submit Syrian refugees after the collapse of Bashar al-Assad’s regime. Greece has already stopped all procedures.
Germany, Austria, Britain, Greece, Denmark, Norway, Sweden have suspended all procedures for examining asylum requests from Syrian refugees, while other European countries, such as France, have gradually announced the same policy.
European countries are proceeding with this change in their immigration policy regarding Syrians, since after the fall of Bashar al-Assad’s regime, there are no longer any reasons to grant the status of “refugee” to Syrian nationals.
In more detail, until Monday evening (09.12.2024) the developments were as follows:
OR Greece decided on Monday to “freeze” all asylum requests from Syrians.
The Governmental National Security Council (GNCSC) will hold an extraordinary meeting under the Prime Minister, Kyriakos Mitsotakis on the subject of the rapid developments after the overthrow of the Syrian dictator, Bashar al-Assad.
According to ERT, the Minister of Immigration and Asylum, Nikos Panagiotopoulos, realizing the fluidity of the situation, decided to accept the recommendation of the Asylum Service, in order to suspend the issuance of the relevant decisions.
The same information states that Greece is asking for guidelines from the European Union on whether the ground for international protection of Syrian asylum seekers remains after the end of the Assad regime or if it should disappear.
It is worth noting that, at the present stage, 9,450 Syrians live in Greek structures, making up 35% of the total population in them.
Italy “freezes” the granting of asylum
The Italian Prime Minister, Giorgia Meloni, convened a meeting on Monday at the Palazzo Chichi government building in which the Ministers of Defence, Foreign Affairs and the Interior participated on the developments in Syria.
In a statement by the Italian government, it is underlined that “at a time when the fighting in some areas of Syria continues, the meeting underlined that the absolute priority is to protect the integrity of the civilian population and to ensure a peaceful transfer of power, which must it is inclusive”.
In the announcement of the Meloni government, at the same time, with reference to the same subject, the following is added:
“At the meeting, special attention was paid to the safety of Italian citizens, Christians and all minorities. The Italian government has decided, as other European governments have done, that -temporarily- they stop examining the asylum applications of Syrian citizens”.
Finally, the Meloni government decided that the Italian embassy in Damascus will remain open and made it known that it will continue to monitor all developments, in close contact with its European partners, the partners of the wider region and the G7, the Group of Seven strongest economies of the planet.
Britain: “Brake” on decision-making
The British government has frozen decisions on Syrian asylum claims as London assesses the current situation, Bloomberg reported today, citing a government spokesman.
Britain’s Home Office did not immediately comment on the report.
The UK’s decision, according to the report, comes after Germany, Austria, France and other European countries ordered a freeze on asylum applications from Syrians following the ouster of the Assad regime.
The war has forced millions of Syrians to flee the country.
Most fled to Turkey and other neighboring countries, but Syrians also make up a large proportion of the more than one million refugees and migrants who fled to Germany and Austria during the European migration crisis of 2015 and 2016.
In the UK, by the end of February 2021, more than 20,000 Syrian refugees had been resettled under a government scheme.
Germany: Suspends asylum procedures
Germany’s Federal Office for Migration and Refugees (BAMF) has suspended all asylum applications from Syrian refugees after the fall of the Assad regime.
“The situation is confusing and it is very difficult to predict what will happen politically in the country. No serious estimates can be made at this time. Any decision would now be weak,” said a representative of the Service to the magazine “Der Spiegel”.
The BAMF also stated that its decision concerns 42,270 pending asylum applications, while there are also 46,000 preliminary decisions, which, however, are not affected for the time being.
However, the debate on whether Syrians should continue to live in Germany is already underway.
Politicians from the Christian Union (CDU/CSU) are calling for the repatriation of Syrians as soon as possible. The vice-president of the parliamentary group, Jens Spahn, suggested that the government should charter planes and pay 1,000 euros to each person who returns to Syria, while he suggested that Germany organize a joint spring conference with Austria, Turkey and Jordan reconstruction” of Syria.
The Union’s home affairs spokesman, Alexander Tromm, stressed that the situation “has changed radically” and it should be re-examined whether Syrians in Germany still need protection. The leader of the Free Democratic Party (FDP), Christian Lindner, for his part expressed the opinion that the issue of returning Syrians to their homeland should be considered in a second phase. “The first step must be to support the stability of Syria,” he stressed.
The opposite opinion is expressed by the Syrian-born expert of the organization “Pro Asyl”, Tarek Alaous, who, speaking to ZDF, described the feelings of his compatriots as “a mixture of hope and fear”.
According to a statement by the Federal Ministry of the Interior, there are currently 974,136 people of Syrian origin living in Germany, of which 5,090 have secured asylum status, 321,444 have been classified as refugees and 329,242 enjoy subsidiary protection, i.e. they have neither asylum status nor been recognized as refugees, but in their homeland would be in danger. The rest have other types of residence permits, such as e.g. for family reunification.
Suspension of examination procedures for asylum applications from Syrians in Austria as well
At the same time, Austria’s Chancellor Karl Neuhammer said earlier Monday that he had asked Interior Minister Gerhard Karner to suspend all processing of asylum applications from Syrians due to the fall of the Assad regime in the country.
“I have instructed the ministry to prepare a coordinated return and deportation program to Syria,” said Carl Nehammer, adding that the family reunification program is also suspended. “The political situation in Syria has changed fundamentally and rapidly in recent days,” the Austrian Ministry of the Interior said in its statement.
According to its data, as of November 30, there were 12,886 pending asylum cases for people of Syrian origin, of which 1,146 related to family reunification.
France: To suspend examination
The French government is working to suspend consideration of current asylum cases for people from Syria, the Interior Ministry said, adding that a decision on the matter would likely be made within the next few hours.
Paris is working on a solution similar to that favored by Germany, which earlier announced it was suspending the processing of asylum applications, the French Foreign Ministry said.
Denmark – Norway – Sweden “freeze” Syrian refugee applications
Denmark, Norway and Sweden also announced on Monday that they were suspending the processing of asylum applications from Syrian refugees.
The Danish Refugee Council has “decided to suspend the processing of cases related to persons originating from Syria, due to the highly uncertain situation in the country after the fall of the Assad regime,” it said in a press release.
The decision currently concerns 69 cases, it is clarified.
In addition, it “decided to postpone the departure deadline for people who are expected to be deported to Syria”, which concerns 50 cases, he clarifies.
In the summer of 2020, Denmark became the first EU country to review hundreds of Syrian refugee cases on the grounds that “the current situation in Damascus is no longer of such a nature as to justify a residence permit or its extension”.
In reality, there was no forced repatriation of Syrian refugees to Syria.
Denmark has a very restrictive reception policy with the goal of “zero asylum seekers”. It encourages voluntary returns of Syrians and has not granted temporary residence permits since 2015.
For its part, Norway has also decided to suspend the examination of Syrian refugee cases, pending the stabilization of the situation.
“The situation in the country remains very fluid and open,” writes the Norwegian Directorate of Immigration in a press release.
The suspension of cases means that the Directorate of Immigration “will not reject or accept asylum applications from Syrians who have asked to be granted asylum in Norway, for the time being,” the agency said, without specifying the number of cases involved.
Norway has received 1,933 asylum applications from Syrians since the beginning of the year.
In addition, the Swedish authorities announced today that they will suspend the processing of asylum applications of Syrian refugees as well as their deportations, the day after the overthrow of Assad in Syria.
“Given the situation, it is simply not possible to assess protection motives at this time,” Carl Bexelius, head of judicial affairs at Sweden’s National Migration Office, said in a press release. The official decision will be made on Tuesday (10.12.2024).
Sweden is the second country in the European Union to host the largest number of Syrians who fled their country to escape the civil war in 2015 and 2016, after Germany.
The authorities will also suspend deportations pending the political situation in Syria.
However, the head of the far-right Sweden Democrats party, Jimmy Akesson, who supports the governing coalition, has come out in favor of leaving the Syrian refugees.