Some German politicians want Syrians to be given plane tickets and cash to leave
A little over 24 hours after rebel fighters entered Damascus early on Sunday morning and claimed victory in Syria's 13-year civil war, Germany's former health minister, Jens Spahn, gave a TV interview in which he proposed "chartered flights" and financial incentives for Syrian refugees to return home.
"What if the German government were to say: Anyone who wants to go back to Syria, we'll charter planes for them and they'll get an incentive of €1,000," Spahn, a member of the conservative Christian Democratic Union, told state broadcaster RTL.
"Yes, we have the expectation - if there is a perspective for stability in Syria - that Syrian refugees return to Syria," he continued.
The situation in Syria is still marked by chaos with Israel having seized the momentum by launching air strikes across Syria and seizing territory beyond the occupied Golan Heights. What will happen in the next weeks and months is largely unclear and whether peace and stability will reign is yet to be seen.
Spahn also expressed his "wish" for Germany to "provide the impulse" for a "joint conference on reconstruction and return" together with Turkey, Jordan and Austria, which are the countries that have taken in the largest share of Syrian refugees since the start of the war in 2011.
Comments made by Bavarian Minister-President Markus Soeder, who also leads the CSU in the state, during an interview on the podcast Table Today expressed a similar sentiment.
"Germany has offered refuge to many people in need. If this situation now changes and the de facto reason for asylum no longer applies, there will no longer be a legal reason to stay in the country," Soeder suggested.
"We have generally been overwhelmed by the topic of migration, logistically, financially, but I would also say culturally. Many people do not feel at home any more in certain parts of the city, and they want this to change," he added.
'Merkel said 70 percent of Syrian refugees want to go home - but is this true?'
- Berliner Zeitung newspaper
According to an October tally by Germany's Federal Ministry of the Interior, 974,136 people of Syrian origin are living in Germany.
Of these, 5,090 are recognised asylum seekers and 321,444 are registered as refugees under the Geneva Conventions, which grant protection to individuals persecuted on account of their membership of a particular group or religion.
A further 329,242 Syrians were granted "subsidiary protection" in Germany, given to individuals at risk of "serious harm" in their country of origin. The remaining people have other residence permits, through family reunification for example.
Headlines of German daily newspapers after Assad's fall were also quick to focus the debate on Syrian refugees in Germany.
"Merkel said 70 percent of Syrian refugees want to go home - but is this true?", the daily Berliner Zeitung asked on Monday.
On Monday, Germany's Federal Office for Migration and Refugees issued an immediate freeze on asylum applications for Syrians. According to the authority, 47,270 open asylum applications from Syrians will be affected by this decision, including 46,000 first applications.
Election campaign rhetoric
The German governing coalition and several groups have criticised the prevailing rhetoric and demands by conservative politicians.
Interior Minister Nancy Faeser, of the ruling Social Democratic party, said it was "frivolous" to speculate about Syrian refugees returning to their homeland "in such a volatile situation", while Chancellor Olaf Scholz cautioned that "it is still too early to start planning concrete measures".
A statement on Tuesday by Pro Asyl, Germany's largest immigration advocacy organisation, stated that "in view of the ongoing chaos and violence in Syria, these demands to return are unrealistic, dangerous and irresponsible. The debate is also unsettling the Syrian community in Germany. Refugees must not be instrumentalised for the election campaign."
Read More »After the governing coalition of Social Democrats, the Green Party and Liberals collapsed last month, Germany is set to hold early elections in February.
The CDU is predicted to win the election (29-34 percent) with the ultra right-wing Alternative for Germany (AFD), currently polling at around 16-20 percent, likely to come second.
Scholz's Social Democrats are predicted to gain just 15-18 percent of all votes.
A CDU-led government would be ruled by ex-banker Friedrich Merz, who in August this year suggested halting asylum applications for people from Syria and Afghanistan entirely, referring to them as "the most problematic groups".
A member of parliament for the Green Party, Julian Pahlke, dismissed attempts by CDU members to pressure the government into devising plans for Germany's Syrian refugees.
"Talking about repatriations just 24 hours after the end of Assad's rule is purely motivated by domestic politics," Pahlke said.
The German Institute for Human Rights was also critical, arguing in a press release that the debate showed "a lack of empathy towards the enthusiastic and relieved Syrians", as well as "a lack of knowledge of the legal basis".
Those who have been granted subsidiary protection cannot currently be returned to Syria as this would require "a significant, substantial and not merely temporary change in the situation in the country of origin", the press release stated.
Hospital staff shortages
On Tuesday the chairman of the German Hospital Federation (DKG), Gerald Gass, warned of the consequences for Germany's healthcare system if Syrian doctors return to their home country on a large scale.
"If large numbers of them leave Germany again, this will undoubtedly have a noticeable effect on staffing levels," Gass told Der Spiegel. Healthcare facilities in smaller towns would be particularly affected, he warned.
According to statistics from the German Medical Association, 5,758 Syrian doctors were working in Germany at the end of last year, almost 5,000 of them in hospitals, making Syrians the largest group of foreign doctors.
The large population of Syrian refugees traces back to the politics of former chancellor Angela Merkel who led the German government for 16 years.
On 5 September 2015 under her self-proclaimed motto "Wir schaffen das" ("We can do it"), Merkel decided to allow thousands of asylum seekers to cross the border into Germany after suspending the Dublin Regulation - an EU regulation restricting migrants’ rights to claim asylum in the EU member state they first set foot in.
Between 2015 and 2017, Germany received approximately half of all asylum claims submitted across the EU, with 1.1 million applications in 2015 alone, the majority of them from Syria.
