“Wir schaffen das!” or “We are able to do it!” mentioned former German Chancellor Angela Merkel 9 years in the past, when she proclaimed that Germany and Europe had the capability to grant asylum to folks in search of refuge.
Again then, her phrases supplied hope to lots of of hundreds of Syrian individuals who have been fleeing the nation’s now-13-year-long civil battle, in quest of refuge in Europe.
However right this moment, Merkel’s open-door coverage for asylum seekers, particularly for folks from Syria, has modified in Europe.
Simply days after the autumn of Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad, nations throughout the continent – together with Germany, Austria, Belgium, Greece, Italy, Sweden, Denmark and the UK – have all introduced plans to pause asylum functions for Syrian folks in search of asylum. This contains each new functions and people which are nonetheless being processed.
On Monday, Filippo Grandi, the pinnacle of the United Nations Excessive Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), known as for “persistence and vigilance”. In an announcement, he mentioned the company is “hoping that developments on the bottom will evolve in a optimistic method, permitting voluntary, secure and sustainable returns to lastly happen – with refugees capable of make knowledgeable choices.”
So what’s the rationale behind European nations freezing asylum functions from Syria?
What number of Syrians have claimed asylum in Europe?
Because the onset of the Syrian civil battle in 2011, the United Nations stories, not less than 7.4 million Syrians stay internally displaced, with roughly 4.9 million in search of refuge in neighbouring nations. A further 1.3 million have resettled elsewhere, largely in Europe.
In accordance with a midyear evaluate launched by the European Union Company for Asylum (EUAA) in September, of a complete 513,000 asylum functions acquired by EU nations in 2024, “Syrians continued to lodge by far probably the most functions within the first half of the yr”. Their asylum claims characterize 14 % of the full variety of functions – an increase of seven share factors in comparison with the identical interval in 2023.
The EUAA report additionally highlighted that round 101,000 Syrian asylum functions are nonetheless pending in EU nations.
In the meantime within the UK, based on the nation’s Dwelling Workplace, greater than 27,000 folks from Syria have claimed asylum for the reason that onset of the civil battle, with 90 % of claims being permitted. Nevertheless, 6,502 Syrian asylum claims are nonetheless pending as of September 2024.
What does ‘pausing’ asylum claims imply?
Following the autumn of al-Assad, some EU nations have introduced a “pause” within the processing of asylum functions whereas they familiarize yourself with the scenario inside Syria, they are saying.
The 27-member bloc’s international leaders will meet later this month to debate a joint response.
Within the UK, which left the EU following the 2016 Brexit referendum, Dwelling Secretary Yvette Cooper famous that the scenario in Syria is shifting very quick. “And that’s the reason, like Germany, like France, and like different nations, now we have paused asylum choices on instances from Syria whereas the Dwelling Workplace opinions and screens the present scenario,” she mentioned.
Bram Frouws, director of Geneva-based assume tank Combined Migration Centre, informed Al Jazeera that pausing asylum claims “mainly means Syrians who’re nonetheless in an asylum course of and awaiting a call can be in limbo for for much longer”.
“Figuring out there are lengthy asylum backlogs in lots of [European] nations, this provides to the uncertainty for a lot of. It additionally signifies that those that arrive to any extent further, whereas nonetheless doable to file an asylum declare, must wait lengthy for a call,” he added.
For now, there isn’t a change in standing for individuals who have already been granted asylum in European nations.
Which EU nations are doing what?
Germany
At present in Germany, which has accepted greater than one million Syrian refugees, the freeze on the processing of asylum functions for Syrian folks will have an effect on 47,770 functions which are already within the system. The nation has not introduced any plans to start deportations of Syrians.
On Monday, after Germany’s Federal Workplace for Migration and Refugees (BAMF) introduced the choice to pause the method, the chief of Bavaria’s conservative Christian Social Union celebration, Markus Soder, mentioned it was “the suitable choice”.
Austria
In Austria, Inside Minister Gerhard Karner mentioned that household reunification visa schemes for Syrians – each new functions and people nonetheless being processed – would even be halted.
Austria has additionally introduced plans to deport Syrian migrants. “I’ve instructed the ministry to arrange an orderly return and deportation programme to Syria,” Karner informed Austrian media, though he didn’t specify which individuals, exactly, can be despatched again. About 100,000 Syrians reside in Austria, based on information from the Austrian authorities.
Denmark
Denmark, which has mentioned it considers Syria to be “secure” since 2019, has been in search of methods to discourage Syrian asylum seekers for a while. Following the autumn of the regime, it additionally mentioned it’s suspending 69 asylum instances at present being processed. It added that it’s now additionally planning to begin deporting Syrians, no matter whether or not they have acquired asylum or not.
Norway, Italy and Belgium
Norway, Italy and Belgium have additionally all made bulletins that they may droop new claims and pause present claims nonetheless below course of.
Frouws famous that circumstances have massively modified with al-Assad’s downfall. His regime was the principle motive to offer safety to Syrians who had fled their nation.
“We have now seen celebrations by Syrians overseas, many expressing an intention to return, and now we have truly seen some small-scale return actions from neighbouring Lebanon and Turkey. In that sense, it’s comprehensible nations are re-assessing the scenario,” Frouws mentioned.
Nevertheless, the selections being taken to droop asylum claims are “untimely” he mentioned. “It’s approach too early to see how the scenario will evolve … the best way European states tumble over one another to all droop processing asylum claims, and even begin talks about returns of those that have already acquired safety is embarrassing,” Frouws mentioned.
He mentioned the selections pointed to a dedication by European nations to return Syrian refugees to Syria.
“It reveals a sure hypocrisy,” he mentioned. “Solely days in the past, some states thought it will be OK to return folks to Syria whereas Assad’s regime was nonetheless there. And now that he’s gone, in addition they assume it’s okay to return folks, which appears to point that irrespective of the circumstances, the objective is returns.”
Does Europe take into account Syria ‘secure’, then?
In the case of claiming asylum, the EUAA determines nations are secure if they don’t generate “safety wants for his or her folks” or are nations by which “asylum seekers are protected and should not at risk”.
Nevertheless, the EU at present maintains that Syria just isn’t secure for folks to return to.
“In the intervening time, we preserve, in step with the UNHCR, the circumstances should not met for secure, voluntary, dignified returns to Syria,” a European Fee spokesperson informed reporters in Brussels on Monday.
The spokesperson added, nonetheless, that “most Syrians within the diaspora have been dreaming of going again to their nation” and whether or not or to not return must be the choice of every household and particular person.
UK Overseas Secretary David Lammy mentioned loads depends upon what occurs subsequent within the nation and a return of individuals to Syria might additionally “shortly change into a circulation again out and doubtlessly enhance the numbers utilizing harmful unlawful migration routes to continental Europe and the UK”.
“At the moment of turbulence and alter, nations ought to keep away from plunging Syrian refugees and folks in search of asylum into conditions of additional uncertainty and precarity,” Eve Geddie, Europe director at Amnesty Worldwide, informed Al Jazeera.
“In step with worldwide regulation and requirements on refugee safety, asylum claims have to be processed promptly and successfully,” she mentioned. “European nations should additionally proceed to contemplate the person circumstances of every asylum seeker on a case-by-case foundation. They have to instantly reverse choices to droop Syrians’ asylum functions and reject calls to return Syrians or prohibit household reunification.”
What do Syrian refugees assume Europe must be doing now?
Ahmad Helmi, who hails from Damascus and at present resides within the Netherlands, informed Al Jazeera that he was disillusioned by some EU nations’ choice to droop asylum claims.
“Their first response ought to have been, ‘How can we assist a democratic transition in Syria and set up peace within the nation?’ relatively than announce stopping asylum claims,” mentioned Helmi, who has been granted asylum within the Netherlands.
Helmi turned one of many many victims of “enforced disappearance” in Syria and now runs Ta’afi, an initiative to assist and shield victims of enforced disappearance in Syria.
“It has some hypocrisy in it, you recognize, as a result of Europe and your complete West have for the previous few a long time been lecturing the remainder of the world about democracy, prosperity and the rule of regulation,” he mentioned. “And now once we introduced down a regime in our nation. We had a number of supporters and several other companions from around the globe, after all. Europe solely thinks about stopping migration and asylum as an alternative of in search of democracy.”
“I would like the worldwide group to at present give attention to having contingencies to assist Syria based mostly on an precise and significant transitional justice course of,” Helmi mentioned. “With no transitional justice course of, peace won’t be sustainable.”