The Home Office would like to facilitate the return of refugees to Syria, a minister has said, saying about 6,500 asylum claims had been suspended as the government waited to assess the fallout from the end of the Assad regime.
The immigration minister Angela Eagle said many refugees had been fleeing from the persecution and torture inflicted by Bashar al-Assad’s regime and said that if people wished to return to Syria from the UK “we’d certainly like to facilitate that”.
Asked whether leave to remain would continue for people who had been granted the status after fleeing Syria, Eagle told Times Radio: “We have suspended our consideration of the current asylum claims – about 6,500 – until we can see what emerges from the current situation.
“If people wish to go home we’d certainly like to facilitate that, but I think it’s too early to say what will emerge from the events that have happened in the last few days.”
Assad fled the country after the Islamist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), along with other rebel factions, seized Damascus on Sunday, and were greeted with euphoria in the capital after more than a decade of brutal civil war in the country.
On Monday, the British home secretary, Yvette Cooper, announced the pause in assessing asylum claims given the changing political situation, saying things were “moving extremely fast after the fall of the Assad regime”.
Other European countries have also said they will suspend the processing of asylum applications from Syrians, with Austria among those already preparing a “repatriation and deportation” programme to the country.
In Germany, more than 47,000 asylum applications from Syrians are pending. Germany’s interior minister, Nancy Faeser, said on Monday in a statement that the end of Assad’s “brutal tyranny” meant Syrians “finally have hope of returning to their Syrian homeland and rebuilding their country”.
Separately, Germany said it would tighten its law to make it easier to prosecute people-smugglers enabling small-boat crossings to Britain, as the two countries signed a new deal aimed at tackling immigration crime. Berlin confirmed plans to reform its legal framework to make it a clear criminal offence to “facilitate the smuggling of migrants to the UK” as part of the agreement, the Home Office said.
The Swedish migration agency said it would pause all decisions on Syrian asylum requests and deportations. The French government said it was also considering suspending current asylum cases and would make a decision in the coming hours.
Eagle told Times Radio “one of the main reasons why people were fleeing and claiming asylum was to get away from the Assad regime”.
She added: “Because things are so fluid we need to wait a little bit before we try to recommence asylum decisions in a territory where things are changing so rapidly.”
Eagle said intelligence services were “keeping a very close eye” on the situation in Syria, when asked about the prospect of jihadists who are British citizens returning to the UK. “Rest assured that the intelligence services are keeping a very close eye on what’s going on and we’re in contact with all of our allies to see how this pans out.”
“Clearly any potential return of jihadists is a matter of great concern, which is why we’ll be keeping a very, very close eye on how this situation develops in the coming days and weeks.”
