Germany's one million Syrians at center of fierce debate over their future

Hind Al Soulia - Riyadh - BERLIN — Across Germany Syrians have been celebrating in the streets the downfall of former president Bashar al-Assad. But now many will be feeling less euphoric, as some politicians question their future in Germany.

There are around a million people with Syrian passports in Germany. Most of them came from 2015-16, after Angela Merkel's government made a decision not to close Germany's borders to refugees fleeing Syria's civil war.

The mood at the time was that Germany would manage. The climate now is rather different.

Within hours of the news of Assad's fall, a fierce political debate erupted in Germany over whether Syrian refugees should go back to Syria.

Snap elections are being held in Germany on 23 February. With migration topping surveys of voters' concerns, some politicians clearly feel talking tough on Syrian refugees will win them votes.

Conservative hardliners and far-right politicians are arguing that if Syrians had fled to Germany to escape Assad, then they can immediately now return back to Syria.

Some right-wingers want to stop granting asylum to people from Syria immediately.

"If the reason for asylum disappears, then there is no longer any legal basis to stay in the country," said Markus Söder, conservative leader of Bavaria.

Jens Spahn, deputy leader of the conservative CDU parliamentary group, has suggested chartering planes and giving Syrians €1,000 (£825) to leave the country.

"Whoever in Germany celebrates a 'free Syria' obviously has no reason any more to have fled," the leader of the far-right AfD party, Alice Weidel, posted on X. "He should go back to Syria immediately."

Sahra Wagenknecht, who this year set up a new anti-migrant far-left populist party, echoed the AfD's rhetoric.

"I expect the Syrians, who are celebrating here the takeover of power of Islamists, to return back to their home country as soon as possible," she said in an interview with German magazine Stern.

Left-wing and Green politicians meanwhile have expressed outrage, calling such comments irresponsible, populist and inappropriate, particularly given how unclear the situation in Syria is.

"Whoever tries to misuse the the current situation in Syria for their own party political purposes has lost touch with reality in the Middle East," said Annalena Baerbock, Germany's Green foreign minister.

"No-one can predict today - and in the next few days - what will happen in Syria and what that means for security policy."

Some left-wingers have been blunter. "All those who start now talking about deportations to Syria are, and excuse me for the language, quite simply depraved scumbags," Jan van Aken, leader of the radical left Linke party, told journalists.

On Monday Germany's Federal Office for Migration and Refugees put on hold all pending applications from Syrian asylum seekers.

This affects 47,270 Syrians in Germany, who are waiting for an answer to their application for asylum.

In a written statement to the BBC, the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees said it was temporarily postponing decisions on applicants from Syria because the situation in Syria was so unclear. "Based on the current situation and the unforeseeable developments, no final decision can currently be made on the outcome of an asylum procedure."

If the situation becomes more stable, officials say, applications will be assessed again, possibly using different criteria.

Studies show that the Syrians who arrived a decade ago are young, on average 25 years old, and tend to have higher levels of education and good rates of employment.

The Syrian men who arrived in 2015 have higher rates of employment than native-born German men.

Many Syrians work in healthcare, including 5,000 Syrian doctors. If the situation in Syria is unstable, it is unlikely they would want to leave.

Many have also received German citizenship, meaning they have learnt German and are financially supporting themselves: 143,000 Syrians received German citizenship between 2021 and 2023, forming the largest nationality to get a German passport.

But about 700,000 Syrians are still classed as various types of asylum seekers. Some are registered as refugees, others have been granted political asylum, while many have what is called subsidiary protection, which means their country of origin is unsafe.

The freeze on pending application decisions does not mean Germany will necessarily stop taking in refugees from Syria once the situation becomes clearer.

And it should not at the moment impact those who already have been granted asylum or refugee status.

But some politicians argue that once the country of origin is no longer dangerous, then refugees can go back home. This could effectively mean in many cases withdrawing the current right to remain.

A decade ago Germany opened its arms to Syrians. Now, the ferocious and polarised political debate will only add to the uncertainty many are already feeling. — BBC