German Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt (CSU) wants to significantly expand the return of Syrians to their home country. The request to leave Germany will “in the near future” also be extended to “young men travelling alone” where “it can be assumed that they are able to support themselves in Syria,” Dobrindt said on Monday at Kloster Banz in Bavaria, on the sidelines of a meeting of the CSU parliamentary group in the Bavarian state parliament. To enable this, protection status will be revoked for an increasing number of Syrians.
“There will then be a step-by-step expansion of the cases being reviewed,” the interior minister said. He added that work was also underway to “significantly increase supported returns” alongside forced returns. The federal government was making it clear that it would “not let up on the migration policy shift,” Dobrindt stressed.
A spokesperson for the Federal Ministry of the Interior said in Berlin on Monday that it was entirely clear “that a protection status can only remain in place for as long as there is a corresponding need for protection.” As the situation in Syria continues to stabilise, this need and the residence permits based on it will be “reviewed in the medium term to determine whether the grounds for protection continue to exist,” the spokesperson said.
However, it was not new that the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees (Bamf) had begun to “gradually expand its revocation activities” to include Syrians, the spokesperson added.
Alexander Throm (CDU), the domestic policy spokesperson for the CDU/CSU parliamentary group in the Bundestag, called for specific measures. “The review of revocations should begin with young men travelling alone who receive social assistance, meaning they do not work and live at the expense of the state,” he told the RND. “People such as doctors or nurses who are working have the opportunity to switch to a residence permit for employment,” Throm said.
Alongside the revocation process, Throm called for “a better programme to support the voluntary return of Syrian refugees.” The programme should “increase the incentive to leave voluntarily. Because every voluntary departure is cheaper than a forced deportation,” he said. The draft federal budget for 2027 already provides for increased funding for voluntary departures.
In Syria, longtime ruler Bashar al-Assad was overthrown by Islamist militias in December 2024. This also brought an end to a 13-year civil war that had forced millions of people to flee the country.
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