Syrians no longer have grounds for asylum in Germany now the civil war in their country is over, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz has declared.
Due to Angela Merkel’s open-door policiy, around one million Syrians live in Germany.
This makes it the EU country with the largest amount of refugees.
The trouble is that Syria remains in a deep humanitarian crisis: forced repatriation would mean legal problems for many of these individuals.
There is a distinction to be made regarding this last point: Germany already decided it would deport people with criminal records months ago, but now wants to encourage broader, voluntary repatriation.
In the first half of 2025, around 1,000 Syrians returned to Syria with German federal assistance.
Since the fall of Assad, 4,000 have returned from Germany, and 400,000 from Turkey.
Merz is encouraging Syrians to return to their country to rebuild it.
Refusal will mean deportation anyway, he warns.
Humanitarian or not, this is accordance with asylum law, which does offer permanent immigration. Germany would provide free flights back and €4000 per family.
To many it looks like this harsh attitude is a bid for the conversations to overtake the far-right Alternative for Germany, whose anti-migrant stance has resonated with many German nationals who feel that the large number of refugees has put a strain on the system.
Gas was recently poured on this fire just this Sunday, when a 22-year-old Syrian was arrested in Berlin after planning a “jihadi attack”.
Of course, this shift towards zealous self-protection is highly unusual in modern Germany, widely known for its deeply shamed attitude towards its nazi history. On the other hand, many commentators have pointed out that Merz often makes big statements before things are set in stone.
Regardless, the UN has already pushed back, saying that conditions in Syria currently do not allow for large-scale repatriations, with some 70% of the population still relying on humanitarian aid.
Even members of Germany’s own foreign government seem conflicted at the moment: while the foreign minister, recently visiting Syria, admitted that the country is still in shambles, Germany’s Chancellery chief insists that young Sunni Muslim men were “certainly not subject to any danger or risk of destitution in Syria” anymore. He also openly stated that Germany will not be able to help this number of people anymore.
