Germany and several other European countries said Monday they are suspending decisions on asylum claims by Syrian nationals because of the unclear situation in their homeland following the fall of Bashar al-Assad.
Germany's Federal Office for Migration and Refugees said Monday that more than 47,000 applications are currently pending. It said it would reassess the situation and resume decisions once things in Syria have stabilized.
Interior Ministry spokesperson Sonja Kock noted that asylum decisions take account of the circumstances of each case, which involves assessing the situation in the applicant’s country. She said the migration authority has the option of prioritizing cases from other places if a situation is unclear, as it currently is in Syria.
More broadly, German officials said it’s too early to tell what the fall of Assad will ultimately mean for the many Syrians who sought refuge in Germany in recent years, particularly in the mid-2010s.
Interior Minister Nancy Faeser said it’s not yet possible to predict "concrete possibilities to return" and "it would be unserious to speculate about this in such a volatile situation."
Her ministry said that, as of Oct. 31, there were 974,136 Syrian nationals in the country, the majority of whom had some kind of refugee or other protected status.
In neighboring Austria, Chancellor Karl Nehammer also tasked his interior minister with suspending decisions on current asylum applications by Syrians, the Austria Press Agency reported.
"It is important to first establish facts, to put asylum and family reunion procedures on hold," Austrian Foreign Minister Alexander Schallenberg said. "We need to wait until the dust settles, so we can see what is happening, what the next points are."
Sweden's Migration Agency said it will also pause decisions on Syrian asylum cases, arguing that it isn't possible at present to assess applicants' reasons for seeking protection. It didn't specify how long the pause would last, but said a similar decision was made in connection with the Taliban's return to power in Afghanistan in 2021.
In Finland, the director of the Department for International Protection at the Finnish Immigration Service, Antti Lehtinen, told public broadcaster YLE that decisions have been suspended there, and he can't immediately estimate when they will resume.
In Norway, the Directorate of Immigration announced a similar decision, saying that it has put asylum applications from Syria on hold "until further notice."
France says it was considering following Germany's example.
"We are working on a suspension of ongoing asylum files from Syria," the French Interior Ministry said. "We should reach a decision in the coming hours."
