Syrians enjoying the fall of the regime. Credit line: Nick Paleologos / AFP / Profimedia
The situation in Syria has not improved enough for the countries of the European Union to start sending back in large numbers the Syrians who took refuge in the EU, European Commissioner for Internal Affairs and Migration Magnus Brunner said in an interview for the German agency DPA on Saturday.
“We have not yet reached a point where Syria is stable enough to be able to carry out large-scale deportations,” said the European Commissioner, insisting that it is “not yet a safe country of origin” according to EU norms, Agerpres quotes. “We offer support to improve the situation and change it,” he added.
With the exception of criminals, the focus is therefore on voluntary return to the country devastated by the civil war. However, the EU asylum agency says the situation in Syria is on the way to improving, according to him.
The European border protection agency Frontex has already supported the voluntary return of thousands of Syrians to their country of origin.
More than 940,000 Syrians are in Germany.
Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul, a member of Chancellor Friedrich Merz's conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU) party, drew harsh criticism within his party in October after he expressed doubts during a trip to Syria about the large number of Syrians who might voluntarily return to their country of origin.
The CDU's Bavarian affiliate, the Christian Social Union (CSU), said in a parliamentary resolution that most Syrians with the right of temporary residence will no longer have grounds for protection once the country's civil war is over and that steps must be taken to deport them.
Syria's civil war, which broke out in 2011, ended in December 2024 after then-rebel leader, now president of Syria, Ahmed al-Sharaa and his forces ousted Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad from power.
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