Syrian human smuggler has refugee status claim rejected by German court

The Münster Higher Administrative Court in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, ruled on Friday that some regions in Syria are not unsafe, which will have a far-reaching impact on those looking to seek asylum in the European country, DW News reported. 

The court made the ruling during an appeal process filed by a Syrian man who escaped to Germany in 2014. The man was originally denied his claim for status as a civil war refugee because he had worked as a human trafficker. He served time in an Austrian prison for smuggling people.

After being denied status, the man appealed to the Higher Administrative Court, who ruled that the situation in Hasaka, where he is from, posed no personal danger to him. The court added that his criminal background prevented him from accessing the protected status.

The court reportedly stated  that it "has already found that the preconditions for granting subsidiary protection, namely the serious threat to the life or physical integrity of an individual civilian as a result of indiscriminate violence as part of domestic conflict in Hasaka province, but also in Syria in general, are no longer present."

Germany currently hosts 900,000 refugee and asylum-seeking Syrian migrants.

An unpopular ruling to some

Pro Asyl, a human rights organization in Frankfurt, told DW News that it disagreed with the ruling. 

"The rather harsh decision of the Higher Administrative Court ignores what is actually happening in Syria," Wiebke Judith, legal policy spokesperson for Pro Asyl, told DW.

"Reports from, for example, the Foreign Office and the European Asylum Agency reveal that Syria is still not a safe country. People are exposed to a wide range of dangers — from torture and an absolutely catastrophic humanitarian situation all the way to armed conflicts," she said.