Responding to the decision of several European governments to suspend asylum applications of Syrians following the ousting of President Bashar al-Assad, Director of Amnesty International’s European Institutions Office, Eve Geddie said:
“The situation in Syria is extremely volatile. Five decades of brutality and repression cannot be undone overnight. But European governments have wasted no time halting asylum applications of Syrians.
At this time of turbulence and change, countries should avoid plunging Syrian refugees and people seeking asylum into situations of further uncertainty and precarity.
Eve Geddie, Director of Amnesty International’s European Institutions Office
“At this time of turbulence and change, countries should avoid plunging Syrian refugees and people seeking asylum into situations of further uncertainty and precarity. Instead, the safety and agency of people seeking asylum must be placed at the heart of decision making and not sacrificed to the rabid, anti-refugee politics currently gripping Europe.
“In line with international law and standards on refugee protection, asylum claims must be processed promptly and effectively. European countries must also continue to consider the individual circumstances of each asylum seeker on a case-by-case basis. They must immediately reverse decisions to suspend Syrians’ asylum applications and reject calls to return Syrians or restrict family reunification.”
Background to the asylum decision about Syrians in Europe
In a statement broadcast live on Syrian national television on 8 December 2024, the opposition forces claimed to have ended Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s rule and freed political prisoners. Amnesty International called on opposition forces to break free from the violence of the past.
Shortly after the ousting of President Assad, European countries including Austria, Belgium, Croatia, Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Norway, Sweden and the United Kingdom announced that they would review their asylum practices in light of these developments, mainly by considering or enacting a suspension of pending asylum applications by Syrians.
To date, credible information about the security situation in Syria has been scarce, and it is still unclear which armed groups are in control of different towns and cities across the border, and how they will be governing the territory that they took over. Reported attacks in Syria by Israel, the US and Türkiye, as well as of fighting involving armed groups risk further endangering civilians.
Header image: Syrian people living in Istanbul gather in Sarachane Park, Fatih district to celebrate with Syrian opposition’s ‘revolution flag’ in their hands as sixty-one years of Baath Party rule in Syria collapses on Sunday when the capital Damascus fell out of the hands of regime control, on December 08, 2024 in Turkiye. (Photo by Hakan Akgun/Anadolu via Getty Images)
