(Bloomberg) -- Germany and Austria suspended all ongoing asylum requests from Syrian refugees following the surprise fall of President Bashar al-Assad’s regime.
The decisions are the strongest European responses so far to the toppling of Syria’s long-time ruler over the weekend.
Germany’s Federal Office for Migration and Refugees decided to suspend processing of all pending applications from Syrian nationals in light of the new developments on the ground, an interior ministry spokeswoman said on Monday.
As the situation in Syria remains very volatile, it’s a very hypothetical question at this point if and when Syrian nationals granted asylum in Germany could actually return to their home country, she said, adding that the protection status is normally granted for three years and can only be revoked if the situation on the ground has changed for good.
The world is still grasping the speed of events in Syria in recent days, and the collapse of a ruling dynasty that laid waste to the country during a catastrophic civil war. But the implications are also quickly sinking in — and not least the prospect of more upheaval and violence as groups tussle for control.
“The situation in Syria is currently very unclear,” German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser said. “For this reason, it isn’t yet possible to predict specific return options and it would be questionable to speculate on this in such a volatile situation. The further assessment of the protection status of recognized Syrian refugees living in Germany also depends on further developments in Syria.”
German authorities are closely monitoring the developments in Syria and the government in Berlin will judge the Islamist group HTS by the way it will treat ethnic and religious minorities in Syria in the coming weeks, a foreign ministry spokesman said.
European countries host over 1 million Syrian asylum-seekers and refugees, with some 60% based in Germany. That also makes Syrians the biggest cohort among asylum-seekers and refugees in Europe’s biggest economy.
The Interior Ministry in Vienna said it needs to reevaluate the situation in Syria and will suspend processing of all applications for the time being, according to an emailed statement Monday.
“I have ordered the ministry to prepare a plan for orderly repatriations and deportations,” Interior Minister Gerhard Karner said.
Chancellor Karl Nehammer, currently negotiating a new three-way coalition government, has vowed to stem immigration as he loses voters to the anti-immigrant Freedom Party.
About 95,000 Syrian citizens were living in Austria at the beginning of 2024 with about 13,000 asylum requests open at the end of November, according to the ministry.
An EU spokesman said Monday it is too early to give an assessment on the impact from the Syrian developments, particularly in the area of migration.
(Updates with comment from German interior minister in sixth paragraph)
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