Eleven countries have rapidly announced reviewing asylum practices despite ongoing volatility in Syria

Amnesty calls for decisions to be reversed on suspending or rejecting Syrian asylum applications

‘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’ – Eve Geddie

Responding to the decision of several European governments to suspend asylum applications of Syrians following the ousting of President Bashar al-Assad, Eve Geddie, Director of Amnesty International’s European Institutions Office, 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. 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.”

Asylum practices under review across Europe

Shortly after the ousting of President Assad, European countries including Austria, Belgium, Croatia, Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Norway, Sweden and the UK 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 Turkey, as well as of fighting involving armed groups risk further endangering civilians.