Germany: No significant response from Syrians who have applied for support to return to Syria

The voluntary return support program for Syrian refugees and asylum seekers hasn’t yet received a significant response.

According to Welt am Sonntag newspaper who quoted the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees (BAMF), 150 applications had been submitted to benefit from the program by January 30, while only 36 applications had been approved.

The program, launched on 13 January, covers travel costs for Syrians wishing to return, as well as a grant of up to €200 in travel assistance, as well as financial support of up to €1,000 for reintegration in Syria.

There are currently an estimated one million Syrians living in Germany, most of them refugees and asylum seekers.

At the time the program was launched, some German states were calling on the federal government to create the conditions for the resumption of deportations to Syria.

Meanwhile, deportations had been suspended since March 2012 due to the civil war then raging.

In this context, Baden-Württemberg’s Minister of Migration, Marion Gentges (CDU), told the German newspaper, “The German Foreign Ministry must reassess the situation on the ground as soon as possible”.

According to the state’s Interior Ministry, there are 11 dangerous criminals from Syria currently living in Baden-Württemberg.

As Hesse’s Interior Minister Roman Busiek (CDU) told the newspaper, “With the fall of the terrorist Assad regime, there are no longer any reasons for many Syrians to stay in Germany… Therefore, I call for a reassessment of the situation in Syria”.

He accused the federal government of laxity in dealing with the issue.

For his part, the Interior Minister of the state of Saxony-Anhalt, which is led by the CDU party, stated that 285 Syrians in the state are obligated to leave the country, but the federal government hasn’t yet provided the legal conditions for the deportation of Syrian criminals and security threats.

At the beginning of the year, German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser (SPD) announced that she would review the protection status granted to Syrian asylum seekers and refugees, stressing that integrated Syrians with stable jobs could stay in Germany, while criminals and Islamic extremists should be deported as soon as possible, once the situation in Syria had stabilized.

However, the German Foreign Ministry made it clear that a new assessment of the situation in Syria would only be possible when the situation there stabilizes.

For her part, Andrea Lindholz, deputy chair of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU/CSU) group in the German parliament, called for an urgent reassessment of the situation in Syria, saying, “Reactivating financial support for voluntary return means that deportations must also resume”.

She strongly criticized Interior Minister Faeser, saying, “Instead of taking serious initiatives and reaching out to the new Syrian authorities, the minister surprises us with strange proposals such as organizing voluntary expeditions to Syria… It’s clear that Ms. Faeser is incapable of managing the file of the return of Syrians to their homeland in an orderly manner”.