In the wake of the fall of the Assad regime in Syria, Germany and Austria have suspended all asylum applications from the war-torn country until further notice.
Amid the chaos of the storming of Damascus by the al-Qaeda-linked Islamist Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) rebel group and the fleeing of former dictator Bashar al-Assad to Moscow, Berlin and Vienna have both announced they will suspend accepting asylum applications from Syrian migrants.
German broadcaster NTV reports that a spokesman for the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees (BAMF) confirmed Monday that all asylum applications from Syrians will be temporarily suspended as the situation in the country is “confusing” and therefore no serious judgements on asylum claims can be made for the time being.
The agency noted that while this decision will not apply to asylum requests made under the EU migrant sharing Dublin regulations, however, it will apply to the vast majority of Syrian nationals. According to the report, there are currently 47,000 asylum applications pending from Syrians, with 46,081 initial applications, which will now be suspended.
A spokeswoman for the Federal Ministry of the Interior said that while asylum cases are typically handled on a case-by-case basis, BAMF has the authority to defer decisions on applications if the situation in the applicant’s home country is unclear and Syria now firmly qualifies as such.
Since the move by former German Chancellor Angela Merkel to open the gates of Europe in 2015 amid the civil war in Syria, the country shot to the top of countries of origin for asylum seekers in Germany. At present there are around 975,000 Syrian nationals living in Germany, with around 600,000 residing in the country on a temporary residence permit under some form of asylum protection.
Following outrage after a Syrian asylum seeker killed three people and injured several others with a knife at a “festival of diversity” in the city of Solingen in August, there has been increased pressure on the leftist government of Chancellor Olaf Scholz, who is facing a tough re-election bid, to clamp down on mass migration and restart deportations to nations such as Afghanistan and Syria, which were paused over supposed safety concerns.
In response to a demonstration among Syrian diaspora migrants in Berlin on Sunday celebrating the fall of Assad, Alternative for Germany (AfD) chancellor candidate Alice Weidel said: “Anyone in Germany who celebrates ‘free Syria’ evidently no longer has any reason to flee. They should return to Syria immediately.”
Germany’s left-wing interior minister, Nancy Faeser, said in a statement per The Telegraph: “Many refugees who have found protection in Germany now finally have hope of returning to their Syrian homeland and rebuilding their country.”
However, she hedged the notion of mass repatriations by noting that the “situation in Syria is currently very unclear” and therefore “concrete possibilities of return cannot yet be predicted at the moment and it would be unprofessional to speculate about them in such a volatile situation.”
“In view of this unclear situation, it is right that the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees has today imposed a freeze on decisions for asylum procedures that are still ongoing until the situation is clearer.”
Germany was joined Monday by the neo-liberal government in neighbouring Austria in suspending asylum applications from Syrians, impacting initially around 7,300 Syrian asylum applications. Interior Minister Gerhard Karner also announced that the country’s family reunification scheme for Syrian migrants has also been suspended until further notice.
The move by Austria and Germany comes amid growing warnings that the Islamist coup of the Assad regime in Syria could spark another European Migrant Crisis. Even prior to the fall of Assad over the weekend, the United Nations warned that food shortages, in large part caused by the country’s civil war, could result in as many as 1.5 million Syrians fleeing their homes this year.
