Austria calls on EU to reconsider refugee repatriations to Syria
QAMISHLI, Syria (North Press) – Austria’s Interior Minister, Gerhard Karner, said on Monday that the European Union should reconsider sending immigrants and refugees back to Syria.
Karner said in a meeting of EU Interior Ministers in Brussels, “Currently, we are not able to repatriate anyone to countries like Syria or Afghanistan, as it would be against EU law.”
Karner stressed it is necessary to reconsider the ban in EU countries on returning refugees to Syria and Afghanistan “in the medium-term.”
“In Austria, these two countries account for about three-quarters of all asylum applications,” he stated.
Karner called on EU countries to discuss which regions are possibly considered safe for the return of those denied asylum.
Additionally, Cypriot Interior Minister, Constantinos Ioannou, pointed out in the same meeting the possibility of increasing repatriations.
Cyprus has made multiple calls to the EU in the past to review the designation of some areas in Syria as safe in order to return Syrian refugees.
EU Commissioner for Home Affairs and Migration, Ylva Johansson, confirmed that new statistics show the EU’s repatriation rate rose by 15 percent in 2023.
Roughly one million Syrian asylum-seekers and refugees live in the EU. Germany alone hosts around 59 percent of them. According to the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR), Syria remains the largest displacement crisis in the world with over 12 million Syrians displaced.