Voluntary exits: BUND pays return aid for 133 refugees from Syria

The Federal Government’s offer for support services that has been in force since January for a return from Germany to Syria have so far perceived some dozen refugees. Until February 16, 40 people who had claimed such support had come, said a spokesman for the Federal Ministry of the Interior of the German Press Agency. The Federal Office for Migration and Refugees (BAMF) has been organizing the promotion of voluntary departures to Syria as part of a federal-state program since January 13.

The program supports central migrants financially and organizationally with a permanent return to their country of origin or a deprivation of the country. Travel aids of 200 euros per adult are planned, 100 euros for minors. In addition, if necessary – there are additional medical costs of up to 2,000 euros, as well as a financial start -up of 1,000 euros for an adult and 500 euros for a child or a young person. There is a maximum of 4,000 euros for each family.

Also the return programs of the countries

There are also return aid programs by the countries. After the departure, the federal states can apply for a proportionate refinancing of the costs incurred to the BAMF. According to the Federal Ministry of the Interior, 85 voluntary trips to Syria were refinanced in 2024 according to preliminary data about this procedure, this year there have been 8 trips – so that the number of voluntary departure funded by the federal government has been used with those who have been using the services of the new federal program that have been available since January.

However, this does not form the total number of volunteers from people from Syria who were looking for refuge in Germany, the spokesman emphasized, but only the cases in which an application for refinancing the costs by the federal states had been sent to the BAMF. “Of course, this is related to the still very unstable situation in Syria that so far few think about a voluntary return,” said Ministry spokesman Maximilian Kall.

Almost a million Syrians in Germany

According to the central register of foreigners, 975,061 Syrian citizens lived in Germany on December 31, 2024. Among them were 10,231 people who are obliged to leave. 9.156 of them were tolerated.

In January, 4,540 people from Syria in Germany applied for asylum for the first time. Syria was again in first place in the list of the main origin countries of asylum seekers, ahead of Afghanistan and Turkey.

According to the speaker, the Federal Ministry of the Interior continues to work on a solution to enable Syrians “short -term home trips to check the situation to prepare a permanent voluntary return” without losing their protection status in Germany.

Assad fell in December

On December 8, Syria’s ruler Bashar al-Assad was overthrown by a rebel alliance under the leadership of the Islamist group Haiat Tahrir al-Scham (HTS), which the Arab country now leads with a transitional government.