Because of new situation in Damascus: Federal Office stops decisions on asylum applications from Syrians

Due to the unclear situation in Syria, the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees (Bamf) is temporarily stopping all decisions on asylum applications from the Arab country. An authority spokesman said this when asked. The “Spiegel” had previously reported. The authority spokesman said the regulation does not apply to so-called Dublin procedures, in which another EU country is responsible for the asylum procedure, but to all applications for which the situation in Syria is decisive.

There are currently more than 47,000 asylum applications pending from Syrians, of which 46,081 are initial applications. Syria has been one of the main countries of origin for asylum seekers in Germany for years.

“The Bamf is looking very closely at how the individual case is handled, which also includes an assessment of the situation on site in the country of origin,” a spokeswoman for the Federal Ministry of the Interior told journalists in Berlin. The Federal Office has the option of deferring asylum decisions if the situation is unclear. And it is obvious that the situation in Syria is currently unclear. In practice, this meant that the applications from Syrians “were sorted down the pile and other asylum decisions were given priority.”

Rebels led by the Islamist group Haiat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) took control of the Syrian capital Damascus on Sunday night, signaling the end of more than two decades of rule by President Bashar al-Assad’s family. The ousted president fled to Russia with his family. Thousands of Syrians celebrated the overthrow of their old homeland on German streets.