Exploring the possibility of returning home
Baerbock wants to enable refugees to travel to Syria
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After the regime change in Damascus, it is still unclear how human rights and the persecution of minorities will behave in Syria in the future. Federal Foreign Minister Baerbock is in favor of allowing Syrians to travel home without losing their protection status.
Federal Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock has spoken out in favor of allowing Syrian refugees to visit their home country. After the fall of the Assad regime, refugees must be given the opportunity to find out for themselves whether there is a permanent possibility of returning for them, she said at the New Year's reception of the Green Party parliamentary group in Hamburg City Hall.
“I hope that we will find the opportunity to be very pragmatic even during an election campaign and give this exemption to the Syrians who would like to do so now,” said the Green politician. “If it's about rebuilding Syria, then of course you have to look at what it's like there on the ground.” At the moment, no one can say “where Syria is headed.”
Baerbock refers to refugees with subsidiary protection status. These are people who present valid reasons that they are at risk of serious harm in their country of origin.
According to the Asylum Act, when people entitled to protection travel to their countries of origin, there is a legal presumption that the requirements for protection are no longer met. There are only exceptions if the trip is “morally imperative”. Otherwise there is a risk of losing protection status.
Last week, Baerbock visited the Syrian capital Damascus together with French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot on behalf of the EU. A good four weeks after the fall of long-term ruler Bashar al-Assad, they were received by the de facto ruler Ahmed al-Sharaa.