Syrian asylum seekers in limbo as countries halt applications

A number of European countries, including the UK, have suspended the processing of asylum applications for Syrians, after the downfall of former president Bashar al-Assad.

Austria’s caretaker government has stopped all asylum claims from Syrians and says it is making plans to to repatriate or deport people back to their homeland, arguing that the situation in the country has changed fundamentally.

Germany (home to a million Syrians), the United Kingdom, France, and Greece have all said they will halt asylum decisions for now.

The moves leave many in the Syrian diaspora in limbo, following the collapse of the Assad regime after 50 years of brutal rule.

Since 2011, the UN says more than 14 million Syrians have been forced to flee their homes in search of safety.

Austria’s Chancellor Karl Nehammer, a conservative who is a hardliner on immigration, said in a post on X that the government would “support all Syrians who have found refuge in Austria and want to return to their home country”.

He added that the “security situation in Syria must also be reassessed in order to make deportations possible again in the future”.

In a statement, Austria’s Interior Ministry said “the political situation in Syria has changed fundamentally and, above all, rapidly in recent days”.

Around 95,000 Syrians live in Austria, many of whom arrived during the migrant crisis of 2015 and 2016. A backlash against them has fuelled support for the far right and conservatives in Austria.

Germany’s Federal Office for Migration and Refugees has put on hold all pending applications from Syrian asylum seekers.

Officials say the political situation is so uncertain in Syria, that it is not possible to reach a proper decision about whether the country is safe or not.

At the moment 47,270 Syrians in Germany are waiting for an answer to their asylum applications. Those who have already been granted asylum are not affected.

Germany has the largest Syrian diaspora population outside of the Middle East, with about one million Syrians living in Germany. About 700,000 are classed as refugees.

British Home Secretary Yvette Cooper confirmed that the UK has “paused asylum decisions on cases from Syria while the Home Office reviews and monitors the current situation”.

Cooper said the situation in the country is “moving extremely fast after the fall of the Assad regime” and added that some people are already returning to Syria.

Between 2011 and 2021 more than 30,000 Syrians were granted asylum in the UK.

Most of these were resettled under humanitarian schemes and came directly from other countries they had fled to, such as Turkey and Lebanon.

In 2019, it was calculated that around 47,000 Syrians were living in the UK, but that number is thought to have since fallen to around 30,000.

France is working on a policy similar to the one put forward by Germany, with a decision expected in the next few hours, according to the Reuters news agency.

Meanwhile, thousands of Syrians exiled in Lebanon and Jordan have been returning home. But on the Lebanese border, the flow has been in both directions.

A BBC correspondent there said an increasing number of Syrians were trying to get into Lebanon, prompting Lebanese military reinforcements. He says some feared an increase in chaos or crime at home, though they also say they have received reassurances this will not happen.

Lebanon hosts more than one million Syrian refugees but has been tightening up the rules for them to enter the country.