Several European countries have suspended processing asylum requests from Syrian nationals following the fall of Bashar al-Assad’s regime in Syria.
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00:00We are free, we can't believe it.
00:02I lost my father, many of my friends in Syria. We will go back.
00:08Several European countries have suspended the Syrian asylum procedures
00:13after the fall of Bashar al-Assad's regime in Syria.
00:16Among them, Germany, Austria and Sweden,
00:19the main host countries for Syrian refugees in the EU.
00:23Austria is re-evaluating the status of Syrian refugees
00:29who arrived less than five years ago
00:31and has also announced a deportation program.
00:36The rights of Syrian refugees and asylum seekers are at risk today
00:40in a Europe in which the far right continues to grow
00:43prospecting increasingly stringent rules against immigration.
00:47And the EU can intervene on how member states manage war refugees
00:52we see it on European Stories.
00:58An Asian-led offensive overturned Bashar al-Assad's regime in Syria
01:02on December 8, 2024.
01:04The Islamist group, ex-Kaida Ayat Ahir al-Sham,
01:08has put an end to 13 years of civil war and 24 years of dictatorship.
01:12The HTS is considered a terrorist group by the UN and the European Union.
01:17The Syrian civil war has caused one of the most serious migratory crises in the world.
01:22More than half of a population of 23 million people has been forced to flee.
01:28More than 7 million remain stranded in Syria.
01:31Almost 5 million are refugees in the border countries,
01:34mainly Turkey.
01:36In Europe, there are more than one million Syrian refugees and asylum seekers.
01:40Most live in Germany, Austria and Sweden.
01:44For 12 years, Syria has been the first country of origin for asylum seekers in the EU.
01:49In 2023, the number of asylum seekers increased by 17%.
01:54Today, the restrictions on asylum procedures put more than 100,000 requests at risk.
02:09About 100,000 Syrians live in Austria.
02:12Their enthusiasm for Assad's fall quickly followed a sense of fear.
02:16And here, in this market, in the heart of the Syrian neighborhood, no one wants to talk about it.
02:24The outgoing conservative government has begun to send letters of rejection of the status of refugee
02:29to those who have received it for less than five years.
02:32In fact, Vienna considers that with the end of the Assad regime,
02:35there is a primary reason why the Syrians have received the status of refugees.
02:46A refugee agreed to tell us about the day when Assad fell and what happened next.
02:53He is one of the founders of the Free Syrian Community Association in Austria,
02:57which brings together about 150 members of various religions and minorities.
03:16The whole Syrian population was happy.
03:19And the next day, the interior minister said,
03:22now the Syrians have to leave and return to their homeland.
03:27And we find it inhuman and unacceptable what the Austrian government is doing.
03:33Will the Austrian government send us away or not?
03:37What exactly will happen?
03:39We are afraid. Syria is not yet safe, not yet stable.
03:46In mid-January, the government had already sent hundreds of letters to Syrian refugees,
03:51informing them that a procedure to revoke their status had been initiated.
03:5658,000 refugees arrived in Austria in the last five years are on alert.
04:01We gave people support and information on what to do next.
04:06Some people have so many family members in Syria and they are worried.
04:13Many of them have received letters and cannot continue to work with their families.
04:23About 5,000 Syrians in Austria have initiated a family reunification practice.
04:31Abdul Kim is helping a friend to understand how to move after the arrival of the letter to revoke his refugee status.
04:37Abdul Monem, a former veterinarian, arrived four years ago and hoped to bring his loved ones to Vienna.
04:45When I received the letter, I had hope and I was working.
04:50In addition to work, I wanted to study.
04:53I had a very good mentality.
04:55When I received the letter, my mentality was completely destroyed.
04:58I felt that I could not work, I could not study.
05:01I was completely disappointed.
05:03I could not study, I could not work.
05:05I was thinking about my family.
05:07What happened to us?
05:09I was not able to contact my phone.
05:12What is this situation?
05:14This situation is not working with us at all.
05:16We had hope and it was gone.
05:20The wife, three children and a son of Abdul Monem are still in Syria.
05:25A country that for him is still too unstable to return.
05:29The 1,000 euro bonus that Austria has offered to encourage voluntary departures is out of the question for him.
05:371,000 euros will not do anything.
05:39The one who sold his land, who sold his house, who did not leave anything to sell, to get here.
05:441,000 euros, what will it do?
05:51The fall of Assad opened a new chapter for Syria and a new legal battle for Syrian refugees in Europe.
05:58Determined to defend their rights.
06:12There is a real risk of deportation today in Europe and Austria for Syrian asylum seekers.
06:19I asked the lawyer and spokesman of the Austrian NGO Asylkoordination.
06:25The state of Austria has the right to evaluate if the reasons why the people receive the status are still existing.
06:34But we are very far away that actually people have an obligation to leave the country.
06:41The announcements done by the Ministry of Interior were aimed at the Austrian electorate to show that they are being tough on asylum seekers.
06:50But they do not reflect reality.
06:53There is a big debate about Syria being considered or not a safe country to go back to.
06:59At the moment the member states are deciding.
07:02But do you agree that it should be the member states?
07:05Basically the asylum law in the European Union is very diverse.
07:11It is still actually a lot in the competence of the member states.
07:15The European Commission should actually be able to issue guidance on how to proceed with these cases right now.
07:24Because the goal has to be that there are procedures that are the same in all the countries.
07:35The European Union is still far from harmonizing its refugee protection system.
07:41This is why the future of more than one million Syrian refugees in Europe is uncertain.
07:46It is full of national policies that are not always in line with shared European principles.