Overthrow in Damascus: No more decisions on asylum applications from Syrians for the time being

After the upheaval in Syria, there is great excitement among the people who have come to Germany from there as refugees in recent years. The federal government, which was quite surprised by the rapid advance of President Bashar al-Assad’s opponents at the weekend, must also reorganize itself, as statements from government officials suggest. The Federal Intelligence Service (BND) reported on the situation in the civil war country a few days ago, but did not expect such a dynamic development, according to parliamentary circles.

German-Syrian relations

Just a few hours after the coup, the revolutionaries’ flag was already flying over the Syrian embassy in Berlin. Maybe also because at home in the Foreign Ministry there is no longer anyone available to say what should happen next. The Federal Foreign Office says that the federal government maintains relationships with states and not with governments. Therefore the embassy remains open.

“Of course we are happy that this regime is finally gone after 54 years,” says Khaled Davrisch, representative of the self-administration of North and East Syria in Germany. In some areas of Syria, such as the Aleppo province, there is still fighting. Germany should try to influence Turkey so that it stops the attacks by the Syrian National Army (SNA), which it supports, in northern Syria on positions of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) led by the Kurdish militia YPG.

Recently there have been repeated calls – including at the EU level – to normalize relations with the Assad regime. The foreign policy spokesman for the AfD parliamentary group, Matthias Moosdorf, demanded in July: “Germany should immediately establish normal relations with Syria, exchange the nonsense of values ​​for a realistic view of the situation and strive for bilateral agreements with Assad to solve migration from Syria.”

“We didn’t do that for good reasons,” says a spokesman for the Foreign Office. Germany has contacts with actors in Syria, “which we have now activated.”

The Syrian refugees in Germany

It is currently impossible to predict how many of the approximately 975,000 Syrians who are currently in Germany want to return home in the future. Especially since there are some of them who were already living in Germany before the large refugee immigration in 2015 and 2016 and people who now meet the requirements for naturalization and some have already applied for it. According to the Federal Statistical Office, around 75,500 Syrians became German citizens in 2023.

A number of refugees from Turkey, Lebanon and Jordan have already made their way back home over the weekend. But the majority are waiting because the situation is still confusing. Opposition circles say that so far there have been no reports of atrocities as the rebels and militias advance towards Damascus. Whether the assurances of the Islamist group Haiat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) regarding the protection of religious minorities can be trusted remains to be seen.

According to the Federal Ministry of the Interior, the Syrians living in Germany at the end of October included 5,090 people entitled to asylum, 321,444 people who were granted refugee status and 329,242 Syrians who enjoyed subsidiary protection. This applies if neither refugee protection nor the right to asylum are granted, but those affected are at risk of serious harm in their country of origin. Due to the changed, still confusing situation, decisions on asylum applications from Syrian citizens should now be postponed, says a spokeswoman for the Federal Ministry of the Interior. The Federal Office for Migration and Refugees (Bamf) says that an immediate decision-making freeze has been imposed. There are currently more than 47,000 asylum applications pending from Syrians, of which 46,081 are initial applications. According to Bamf, 10,024 people were required to leave the country at the end of November, 8,960 of whom had a tolerated permit.

The situation is currently still very confusing, says Federal Interior Minister Nancy Faeser (SPD). “Therefore, concrete return options cannot yet be predicted, and it would be dubious to speculate about them in such a volatile situation.” However, voices were raised in the ranks of the Union as well as the AfD and BSW that many Syrians no longer have the basis for their stay.

“In recent months and years, the HTS has tried to distance itself from its jihadist origins,” says a spokesman for the Foreign Office. But ultimately the group, which will certainly continue to play a role in Syria in the future, must be judged by its actions. A spokeswoman for the Federal Ministry of the Interior points out that the Islamist group limits its activities to Syria.

A potential danger comes from the former fighters of the terrorist militia Islamic State (IS), who are staying in prisons and refugee camps guarded by Kurds. “There are around 10,000 former IS fighters in prison, including almost 2,000 foreigners,” says Davrisch. The radicalized women and children of the former IS tyrants also pose a great danger if they are liberated.

Investigations in Germany

Several trials in Germany have received great attention among Syrian exiles in recent years. For example, in January 2022, the Koblenz Higher Regional Court imposed a life sentence on a man who is said to be an accomplice for the torture of at least 4,000 people and the deaths of at least 27 prisoners. A second Syrian had previously been sentenced to four and a half years in prison for aiding and abetting a crime against humanity.

The coup initially has no consequences for the investigations underway in Germany into war crimes committed in Syria. If war crimes that are the subject of an investigation in Germany soon also become the subject of criminal investigations in Syria, the investigation could be discontinued by the German law enforcement authority.