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Syrians in Germany have called on the government to allow them to travel to their home country for short visits without risking their protection status, as questions mount over how the fall of Bashar al-Assad’s regime will affect the millions of Syrians who live in Europe.
More than a month after a lightning advance by rebels toppled the Assad family’s 54-year rule, the residency status of many Syrians across Europe remains in limbo. A dozen or so countries across the bloc responded to the regime’s fall by suspending the processing of asylum application from Syrians. Austria went further to say it was preparing a “repatriation and deportation” programme.
Officials’ swift response has increased the trepidation many Syrians across the continent feel as they mull whether or not to return home. It is a particularly fraught question for those who have not been able to obtain citizenship in an EU country.
“People are afraid to go to Syria and lose their status as refugees or asylum applicants,” said Anwar al-Bunni, the head of the non-profit Syrian Centre for Legal Studies and Research, based in Berlin.
He was among 10 representatives from Germany’s Syrian community who recently asked the government to create an exemption – similar to that provided to the recent wave of Ukrainians who took refuge in Europe – to allow those who have not yet obtained German citizenship to travel temporarily to their home country without risking their status.
“Everybody wants to go and have a look,” said Bunni. “Some will go and if his home still exists, his shop, his work, they will head back to Syria eventually. Others have work here or have projects, they might want to help Syria but continue working here. Others just want to visit but stay here.”
That call has been echoed across the continent, said Catherine Woollard, the director of the European Council on Refugees and Exiles.
Those with citizenship from an EU country have been free to travel as they wish, but for those who have international protection status – from recognised refugees to those whose asylum applications are pending – the general practice has long been to revoke their status if they are found to have returned to the country they fled.
“We’ve strongly cautioned against attempts to prematurely revoke status and prematurely forcibly return people because this is all extremely new and it would be unlawful to do that before it’s clear that Syria is safe,” said Woollard.
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The UN has described the humanitarian situation in Syria as disastrous, with 90% of the population living in poverty after the collapse of the economy. After 14 years of civil war, much of the country is in ruins.
Woollard said her organisation was among those supporting the idea of Syrians being allowed to return temporarily, noting that Turkey had already announced that it would allow three visits back to Syria without loss of status. “It is both in the interests of the people themselves but also in the interests of the states,” she said. “And that’s because it’s more likely to contribute to the long-term return of people.”
As most Syrians had not been able to return since setting foot in Europe, visits would allow them to re-establish connections with relatives, property and potential employers as well as assess the situation. Ultimately “this means that people then have prospects, they have a plan for when they return”, Woollard said.
For Germany’s nearly 1 million Syrians the dilemma comes as the country gears up for general elections on 23 February. Migration has emerged as a dominant talking point, as parties on the right and left scramble to fend off the rise of the far-right Alternative für Deutschland.
Germany’s interior minister, Nancy Faeser, has suggested the government would be open to allowing Syrians and Syrian-German nationals to visit their homeland once without losing their protected residency status. “It would allow a voluntary return to Syria to get an impression: whether homes are still standing, relatives are still alive and whether they are truly safe in their homeland,” said a ministry spokesperson.
Opposition politicians, however, have criticised the prospect. Thorsten Frei, the parliamentary group leader for the centre-right Christian Democratic Union (CDU), said that three months earlier the government had changed the law to bar such trips home. Faeser should not pursue a “zigzag” in policy “on a personal whim”, he told Spiegel news.
This hints at how the lives of Syrians in the country have become a political pawn in the election campaign. Members of the opposition centre right as well as the far right have called for Syrians in Germany to return to their homeland as soon as possible. Jens Spahn of the CDU said Berlin should charter flights to Syria and offer €1,000 (£830) to anyone who wants to return there.
The idea was countered by many employers, trade unions and business associations who pointed to the vital role Syrians have played in alleviating the country’s deep labour shortages.
A study last month by the German Economic Institute suggested that about 80,000 Syrians work in sectors that are experiencing labour shortages. This included more than 4,000 mechatronic technicians in the auto industry, about 2,470 dentists and dental hygienists, 2,260 childcare workers and 2,160 medical carers.
The study also found that more than 5,000 Syrian doctors were fully employed in Germany and that their return could lead to “critical shortages” in medical services.
