Germany, Greece Freeze Syrian Asylum Applications

Austria has announced plans to deport Syrian migrants following the fall of the country’s dictator Bashar Assad to rebel forces after 13 years of civil war, while Belgium, France, Greece and Germany are pausing Syrian asylum applications.“I have instructed the ministry to prepare an orderly return and deportation program to Syria,” Interior Minister Gerhard Karner told Austrian media, without clarifying which migration statuses would be targeted.

Some 100,000 Syrians live in Austria, according to the country’s statistics agency.One day after Syrian rebel factions, led by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) — designated as a terrorist organization by the United States and the United Kingdom — toppled Damascus, Austria, Belgium, Greece, and Germany are using the success of the rebels to revise their migration policies, with all four closing their doors to asylum seekers. The U.K. has also said it will stop processing asylum applications from Syrians.

The decisions to revise asylum policies come as anti-immigrant far-right parties have surged in popularity across the European Union in recent months. Germany, for example, faces snap elections in February, with far-right parties currently performing strongly in the polls.

In fewer than 10 days, Syrian rebels forces ended decades of rule by the Assad family, which has run Syria since a coup in 1970. More than 4.5 million Syrians have made their way to Europe since Assad’s crackdown on protests and dissent in 2011 amid the Arab Spring, leading to a long, bloody civil war during which…   600,000 people were killed.

Germany’s Federal Office for Migration and Refugees (BAMF) said it will freeze asylum applications for more than 47,000 Syrian nationals, a spokesperson for BAMF told German media. Syria was the top country of origin for asylum seekers in Germany this year, according to BAMF.

On Monday, Greece put a hold on processing 9,000 Syrian asylum applications, a senior government official, who was granted anonymity to speak about the sensitive matter, told POLITICO.

The official added the government will decide on Friday whether to stop processing applications from Syria completely.

Belgium also announced the applications of more than 3,000 Syrians have been put on hold.

“We decided today to stop handling Syrian asylum applications for the time being,” a spokesperson for Belgium’s Commissioner General for Refugees and Stateless Persons (CGRS) said.