Allow Syrians to go back for short visits, EU activists say

Bunni, head of the non-profit Syrian Centre for Legal Studies and Research, has spent more than a decade collecting testimonies on crimes committed against Syrians and building cases of crimes against humanity under the Assad government.

Allow Syrians to go back

He was expecting a call from a contact in the German government to hear about his request to go back to Syria without losing his refugee status in the European nation.

“We need to go back, I need to go back and rebuild the country,” he told EU News by phone from Berlin. “Everybody wants to go and have a look. Some may come back and resume their lives here, but others will return either now or after they have rebuilt their homes and societies.”

Will Syrian refugees stay in Germany?

Syrians across Europe celebrated Assad’s ouster, but many are unsure conditions on the ground are suitable for their return. According to the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR), 90% of the Syrian population inside Syria needs humanitarian aid. So the questions asked by the Far-right how long will Syrian refugees stay in Germany?.

More than 40% of hospitals are not fully functional, according to UN-Habitat, and a World Bank report found that 96% of people live off less than $7 (€6.75) a day in the war-ravaged nation. And Now that Israel has started its invasion of its Greater Israel project, more destruction is expected to follow.

Less than a month after Syrian rebels took charge of Damascus, the German and French foreign ministers met to the country’s new leaders. It is an opportunity too good not be exploited. The EU eyes a role in Syria’s future, all that oil and resources, some one must control it.

EU officials have said the idea is to encourage the formation of an inclusive government and for the bloc to play an active role in helping Syrians shape their future. But activists suspect the motivation behind the quick intervention is equally to lay the groundwork for repatriating Syrians.

Some EU countries, including Germany, have frozen new asylum decisions from Syrians, and politicians in the bloc have indicated deportations could soon again be possible.

Lift visit ban to encourage voluntary returns

Several legal experts and activists in various European capitals told WTX there could be an easier way to encourage voluntary returns: Allow Syrians to go back for short visits and rebuild their homes without fearing revocation of their protected status.

They said European governments were undermining their own goals by denying Syrians a visit to see if their homes were still standing. Experts also drew a comparison with Ukrainians taking refuge in Europe.

A two tier immigration policy

“Ukrainians are allowed to go back to Ukraine for short visits, for example to maintain property or to support relatives, without losing their protection status in the EU,” Catherine Woollard, director of the European Council of Refugees and Exiles, told EU News from Brussels.

“A similar approach should be extended towards Syrian refugees. Currently, they would almost certainly lose their protection status,” Woollard added. “Allowing short visits for Syrians to reestablish connections would likely increase return numbers.”

A trip to Syria put EU protection at risk

French activist Gerard Sadik, head of asylum issues at the French NGO La Cimade, agreed, saying not being allowed to take a reconnaissance visit without losing their protection status was “the biggest problem” Syrians in Europe currently face.

“In the 90s, Bosnians were allowed temporary visits, now Ukrainians are. But not Syrians, not at the moment,” he said. “The Syrians who have received French citizenship, they are free to go and return. But others are afraid they will lose everything here, like homes and schools, everything.”

Different EU rules for Ukrainians and Syrians

Conditions for Ukrainians and Syrians in the EU vary because the bloc offered them protection under different programs.

While Syrians receive protection under the asylum system, which is based on the 1951 Geneva Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees, Ukrainians receive temporary protection, which was brought into existence two decades ago following the large-scale migration to the EU mainly due to the Bosnian conflict.

In 2022, when Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the EU activated the temporary protection mechanism for Ukrainians fleeing the war. The idea was to offer protection while also reducing pressure on the national asylum systems already under the strain of arrivals from the Middle East.

Temporary protection allows recipients to freely visit their home country and return to the host nation, but once the war ends, they are expected to return en masse. Individuals granted refugee status or subsidiary protection, as is the case with most Syrians, have a legal right to contest deportation.

Short trips should not be ‘excuse’ to withdraw protection

Some activists believe that under an EU law, the EU Qualification Directive, even Syrian refugees are allowed temporary visits without losing their status. They contend that the protected status can only be legally revoked when they permanently settle in the country of origin.

“The EU Qualification Directive applies to all member states and it foresees cessation of protection if you reavail yourself of the protection of your home country or if you reestablish yourself there,” said Wiebke Judith, legal spokesperson of Pro Asyl, a German organization. “This is in our opinion quite different from brief visits, for instance to see relatives when they are very sick or for example in the case of Syria, to look for disappeared family members.

“One could even say that it is also in the interests of the European governments who want refugees to leave, to allow these visits so that people can see if they could have a future again in their home country,” she said. “But such short visits should not be taken as an excuse to withdraw a still needed protection status.”

Bunni said he joined nine other Syrian civil society representatives and met German government officials to request permission for Syrians to return for temporary visits and they were assured the government would look into the matter.

Edited by: Sean M. Sinico