European countries suspend Syrian asylum decisions after Assad’s fall

BERLIN: Germany, France, Austria and several Nordic countries said on Monday they would freeze all pending asylum requests from Syrians, a day after the ouster of president Bashar al-Assad.

While Berlin and other governments said they were watching the fast-moving developments in the war-ravaged nation, Vienna signalled it would soon deport refugees back to Syria. Far-right politicians elsewhere made similar demands, including in Germany, home to Europe´s largest Syrian community, at a time when immigration has become a hot-button issue across the continent.

Alice Weidel of the anti-immigration Alternative for Germany reacted with disdain to Sunday´s mass rallies by jubilant Syrians celebrating Assad´s downfall. “Anyone in Germany who celebrates ´free Syria´ evidently no longer has any reason to flee,” she wrote on X. “They should return to Syria immediately.”

World leaders and Syrians abroad watched in disbelief at the weekend as Islamist-led rebels swept into Damascus, ending Assad´s brutal rule while also sparking new uncertainty. A German foreign ministry spokesman pointed out that “the fact that the Assad regime has been ended is unfortunately no guarantee of peaceful developments” in future.

Germany has taken in almost one million Syrians, with the bulk arriving in 2015-16 under ex-chancellor Angela Merkel. Interior Minister Nancy Faeser said many Syrian refugees “now finally have hope of returning to their Syrian homeland” but cautioned that “the situation in Syria is currently very unclear”.

The Federal Office for Migration and Refugees had imposed a freeze on decisions for ongoing asylum procedures “until the situation is clearer”. She added that “concrete possibilities of return cannot yet be predicted and it would be unprofessional to speculate in such a volatile situation.”

Rights group Amnesty International slammed the freeze on asylum decisions, stressing that for now “the human rights situation in the country is completely unclear”. The French interior ministry said it too would put asylum requests from Syrians on hold.

In Austria, where about 100,000 Syrians live, conservative Chancellor Karl Nehammer instructed the interior ministry “to suspend all ongoing Syrian asylum applications and to review all asylum grants”.