Euro states halt Syrian asylum applications after Assad fall, Turkey opens border for their return

Germany's Federal Office for Migration and Refugees (BAMF) has put all asylum applications from Syrian nationals on hold until further notice after the toppling Syrian president Bashar al-Assad, an Interior Ministry spokesperson said on Monday.

Asylum requests will be not be processed until there is more clarity on political developments in the country, which is just emerging from a 13-year civil war, the spokesperson said.

Turkey is opening its Yayladagi border gate with Syria to manage the safe and voluntary return of the millions of Syrian migrants it hosts, President Tayyip Erdogan said on Monday, adding Ankara was ready to support the country's rebuilding in any way it can.

Speaking after a cabinet meeting in Ankara, Erdogan added that Turkey would not allow new terrorist elements to emerge on its borders.

Over 800,000 people with Syrian citizenship live in Germany, with the majority having come as refugees following former Chancellor Angela Merkel's decision in 2015 to allow over a million asylum seekers to enter Germany.

Syria was the top country of origin for asylum seekers in Germany this year, with 72,420 asylum applications submitted by the end of November, BAMF data shows. Some 47,270 asylum applications from Syrians remain undecided.

The decision comes ahead of snap elections set for February. Far-right and conservative parties are topping the polls, and Germans view migration as the second biggest problem their country faces, a poll by Infratest showed on Friday.

The head Bavaria's conservatives, Markus Soeder, on Monday referred to the BAMF suspension as "the right decision."

"We even have to consider how a greater number of people can be repatriated to their Syrian homeland," he said in a news conference.

Austria

Austria's caretaker government also said on Monday it had ordered a halt to the processing of asylum applications by Syrians after rebels seized Damascus and President Bashar al-Assad fled to Russia after 13 years of civil war.

The civil war forced millions of Syrians to flee the country. They were a large proportion of the more than a million people who their way to Germany and neighboring Austria during the European migration crisis of 2015 and 2016.

A public backlash against that influx continues to fuel support for Austria's far right and conservatives.

"Chancellor Karl Nehammer today instructed Interior Minister Gerhard Karner to suspend all current Syrian asylum applications and to review all cases in which asylum was granted," the Interior Ministry said in a statement.

Karner added: "I have instructed the Ministry to prepare a program of orderly repatriation and deportation to Syria," without elaborating on how that could be achieved.

Nehammer said on X on Sunday that the security situation in Syria should be reassessed to allow deportations to resume.

The ministry said it was also suspending family reunification, under which refugees' families can join them. Syrians are the biggest group of asylum applicants in Austria by far, with 12,871 applications to date this year as of November.

Nehammer and Karner are from the conservative People's Party (OVP), which has made a hard line on immigration similar to the far-right Freedom Party's one of its hallmarks.

Nehammer is currently in coalition talks with two other parties aimed at forming a government without the Freedom Party (FPO) even though the FPO came first in September's parliamentary election. The FPO would have needed a coalition partner to govern and none was immediately forthcoming.

Many voters, however, feel it was still unfair of President Alexander Van der Bellen not to formally task the FPO with forming a government.

The Interior Ministry said 12,886 asylum applications by Syrians had yet to be ruled on either in the first or second instance, 1,146 of which were based on family reunification.

Greece

Greece has also paused the asylum applications of about 9,000 Syrians following the ouster of Syrian president Bashar al-Assad, a senior Greek government source told Reuters on Monday.

France

The French government is working on a suspension of current asylum cases from Syria after the fall of President Bashar al-Assad, the interior ministry said, adding that a decision on the matter would likely be reached within the next few hours.

Paris is working on a solution similar to the one put forward by Germany which earlier said it would put asylum applications on hold, the French foreign ministry said. Other European Union countries have done the same.

United Kingdom

Britain has paused decisions on Syrian asylum claims while it assesses the current situation, Bloomberg reported on Monday, citing a government spokesperson.