Peter Caddle
The European Parliament should back the “repatriation of Syrian nationals” within the bloc now that the Assad regime has collapsed, a German MEP has said.
Writing to all her parliamentary colleagues on December 10, Alternative for Germany (AfD) politician Mary Khan MEP said many migrants on the continent used the existence of the Assad regime to justify their asylum claims.
“Many of you will have witnessed the jubilant scenes on the streets of European cities of Syrians celebrating the latest developments in their country.”
“This should come as no surprise, after all, as a substantial number of asylum seekers from Syria referred to the Assad regime as their reason for claiming asylum,” she said.
Meanwhile Austria’s interior minister Gerhard Karner has told the country’s media he has already informed civil servants that they are to “prepare an orderly return and deportation programme to Syria”.
Other countries have announced they have stopped taking new asylum applications made by Syrians, with some others also freezing ongoing asylum applications submitted by those from the country.
Khan continued, “Such high numbers of asylum seekers in recent years have caused a significant financial, social and cultural burden on our member states. In Germany, for example, over half of Syrians live on social benefits and a substantial number are involved in criminal activities,” she added.
Khan highlighted that many member states, including Germany, Austria and France, had ceased processing the asylum applications of Syrians in response to the regime’s collapse earlier in December. She said the European Union should now step in to help these countries repatriate Syrians who no longer needed asylum.
“I would therefore like to invite you to co-sign a resolution calling for adequate funding and organisational support to assist our Member States with the repatriation of Syrian nationals,” she wrote, before asking her colleagues to sign a motion of resolution enclosed in the email before December 12.
Speaking to Brussels Signal, Khan characterised the decision to let in the approximately four million Syrian migrants as a “mistake” forced on member states by the EU.
“Germany is host to approximately one million Syrians and statistics show that the majority of these rely on social benefits, significantly more than half,” she said.
“We can also see in official crime statistics that a significant number of Syrians are also suspects in criminal activity, including sexual and violent crimes, and that these figures are rising year on year.”
“The fear of the Assad regime, which served as the main reason for asylum in Germany, has become superfluous after recent developments in Syria,” Khan added.
“This was evident when Syrians in Germany celebrated the recent coup in Syria. I say that they can now do the same again in their ‘liberated’ homeland!”
“This resolution, therefore, is asking for the EU to make amends for their past mistakes.”
“The EU opened the doors to millions of migrants allowing Member States to suffer the economic, social and cultural consequences. Now it must help our nations in returning these people home,” she said.
EXC: Europe must save Syria from any takeover by Turkey-backed Islamists, according to the man who has spent most of his life opposing the regime of dictator Bashar al-Assad, his first cousin @RibalAlAssad. https://t.co/v288fWtAdf
— Brussels Signal (@brusselssignal) December 10, 2024
Khan’s calls for the EU to help enable the repatriation of migrants came as national governments eyed up the possibility of sending their populations of Syrian asylum seekers home.
Left-leaning NGOs have responded to the developments with outcry, insisting that despite the demise of Assad, Syria remained dangerous.
“The situation in Syria is extremely volatile. Five decades of brutality and repression cannot be undone overnight. But European governments have wasted no time halting asylum applications of Syrians,” director of Amnesty International’s European Institutions Office, Eve Geddie, said on December 10.
“At this time of turbulence and change, countries should avoid plunging Syrian refugees and people seeking asylum into situations of further uncertainty and precarity.”
“Instead, the safety and agency of people seeking asylum must be placed at the heart of decision making and not sacrificed to the rabid, anti-refugee politics currently gripping Europe,” she said.
Some are warning that the fall of Assad could trigger another wave of mass migration into Europe.
UK Foreign Secretary David Lammy said on December 9: “Seeing so many start to return to Syria is a positive sign for their hopes of a better future now that Assad is gone, but a lot depends on what happens now.”
“This flow into Syria could quickly become a flow back out and potentially increase the numbers using dangerous, illegal migration routes to continental Europe and the UK.”
EXC: Ribal al-Assad, first cousin of toppled Syrian president Bashar al-Assad, has spoken to Brussels Signal following the former Syrian leader’s recent flight to Moscow and the fall of a family regime that dominated Syria for decades. https://t.co/lRoOq12AQC
— Brussels Signal (@brusselssignal) December 10, 2024