UK says 'no basis' for Syrians to make asylum claims after Assad's fall

The UK government has announced it is suspending all Syrian asylum claims - just a day after the Assad dynasty was toppled in Syria.

There are around 30,000 Syrian nationals living in the UK, a relatively small amount compared with many European countries. 

The government's decision to pause asylum claims followed the same decisions by Germany, which has taken in nearly a million Syrians fleeing the country's war, and other European countries including Greece, Sweden, Italy, the Netherlands and Belgium.

Austria, meanwhile, has announced it is beginning a "programme of orderly repatriation and deportation to Syria".

In the UK, there are currently around 6,500 asylum claims by Syrians - all of which have been paused.

Angela Eagle, minister for border security and asylum, told Sky News on Tuesday morning: "The main reason people claim asylum from Syria... is that they were fleeing from the brutal Assad regime which has just collapsed before our eyes."

She added that "there is no basis at the moment to make asylum claims", saying "we can't measure any decision against a factual reality at the moment.

"So we're going to pause to let things play out a bit and see what then happens, because we don't have the criteria to make a decision, given the rapidly changing situation.

When it was put to Eagle that Syria is now being run by Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), which the British government has designated a terrorist organisation, she replied: "Well it's not being run yet."

The minister added: "We don't really know what kind of regime or system will come out of the chaos that we've seen. We do welcome the fact that the Assad regime, which was brutal, has gone. That's good.

"But what replaces it is not yet clear, and that is why we have to pause asylum claims and wait to see what happens."

Syria is still in a state of conflict, many commentators say. 

According to the Syrian Observatory of Human Rights (SOHR), Israel has carried out 300 strikes across the country since Sunday.

Syrian media reported that the Israeli Air Force bombed the Latakia port on Monday, with strikes targeting Syrian naval assets. 

Refugee concerns

This comes after Foreign Secretary David Lammy warned parliament on Monday that the "flow" of refugees returning to Syria "could quickly become a flow back out and potentially increase the numbers using dangerous, illegal migration routes to continental Europe and the UK."

Shadow Foreign Secretary Priti Patel suggested that Britain was at risk from "terrorist fighters" arriving from Syria, a point which Lammy conceded.

Meanwhile, there has been confusion over whether the UK is re-evaluating its designation of HTS as a terror organisation.

On Monday morning government minister Pat McFadden said Britain would consider delisting the group "in the days to come". 

"The leader of that group has distanced himself away from some of the things that have been said in the past," McFadden told the BBC's Today programme.

"He is saying some of the right things about the protection of minorities, about protecting people's rights."

However, Prime Minister Keir Starmer later rowed back on this position, insisting there was "no decision pending at all" and that it is "far too early".

HTS is listed by the UK's Home Office as an "alternative name" for al-Qaeda.

But in 2016, HTS leader Abu Mohammad al-Jolani (real name Ahmed al-Sharaa) publicly broke with al-Qaeda and has since then pledged protection for minorities and to respect Syria's diversity.