European countries freeze Syrian refugee decisions as Assad loses power
Multiple European nations stopped processing Syrian asylum requests after recent political changes in Damascus. Germany which hosts about a million Syrians leads the continent-wide pause in application reviews
Several EU countries hit pause on Syrian asylum decisions after Bashar al-Assad lost his grip on power in early Dec-24. This move affects tens-of-thousands of open requests‚ showing how right-wing parties ideas are getting more popular
The German govt (which took in lots of people during the mid-2010s refugee crisis) now has the biggest Syrian group in Europe: nearly one-million people. Their migration office says about 72k new Syrian applications came in this year‚ with 47k still waiting for answers; however existing permits wont change
- Norway stopped giving yes-or-no answers
- Austria froze applications and family meet-ups
- Denmark let rejected people stay longer
- Greece paused about 9k cases
- France plans similar steps soon
German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser says its too early to know if Syria is safe now – they need to watch how things develop there. The timing matters because Germany has an election coming up in Feb-25‚ and polls show far-right parties doing well. A recent study shows Germans think only money problems are bigger than migration issues
ProAsyl (a group helping refugees) points out that figuring out Syrias safety might take longer than the six-month limit for decisions‚ making this whole situation extra-tricky
