Merz told reporters that he had invited Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa to Germany to discuss “concrete steps” for the deportation and agree on joint solutions.
The agency notes that previously Germany’s policy towards refugees was much softer: Angela Merkel 10 years ago accepted almost 1 million migrants, among whom were many Syrians fleeing the civil war. Since then, the political situation has changed: support for the far right has risen sharply, and the Christian Democratic Union of Germany (CDU), under the leadership of Merz, has taken a hard line on border security and migration, promising to speed up deportations, writes Reuters.
Merz also emphasized that now “the civil war in Syria has ended,” and therefore there are no longer any grounds for providing Syrians with asylum in Germany.
Context
The military conflict in Syria has been ongoing since 2011. The Syrian government forces of President Bashar al-Assad, opposition forces, radical Islamists, Kurds, Islamic State militants, as well as the armed forces of the Russian Federation, the United States, Iran and Turkey took part in the fighting at various times.
In late November 2024, factions opposed to President Assad launched an offensive on Aleppo, the second largest city in the country, controlled by government forces since 2016. And on December 8, Syrian rebels announced they had taken control of Damascus, the country’s capital, liberating it from regime forces. President Assad disappeared, and on the same day Russia reported that he was on its territory.
On January 29, SANA reported that Syrian rebel leader Ahmed al-Sharaa was appointed president for a transition period.
