A number of European countries suspend consideration of asylum applications from Syria
Several European countries, including Germany, France, Austria and several Scandinavian countries, have announced that they will freeze all pending asylum applications from Syrians a day after former Syrian President Bashar al-Assad was ousted.
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Such decisions were made in Germany, Austria, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Greece, Finland, the United Kingdom and Switzerland. In particular, Greece suspended consideration of almost 10,000 Syrian applications. In addition, more than 47,000 applications have not yet been finally approved in Germany.
France is working on a possible suspension of asylum requests from Syrians, the Ministry of the Interior told Le Monde. In 2023, the country registered more than 4,000 asylum requests from Syrian citizens.
In Austria, which is home to about 100,000 Syrians, Chancellor Karl Nehammer has instructed the Interior Ministry to "suspend all current asylum applications for Syria and review all asylum grants".
The Norwegian Directorate of Immigration (UDI) has announced that they have decided to suspend asylum applications for people from Syria.
"The reason for this is the recent major events and changes in Syria. However, the situation in the country is still very unclear," the agency said in a statement.
Currently, queues of thousands of refugees returning after the fall of the Bashar al-Assad regime have formed on Syria's borders, most of them on the border with Lebanon and Turkey.
Source: Le Monde
