The decisions to revise asylum policies across European countries come as anti-immigrant far-right parties have surged in popularity across the European Union in recent months. Germany, for example, faces snap elections in February, with far-right parties currently topping the polls.
Germany’s Federal Office for Migration and Refugees (BAMF) said it will freeze asylum applications for more than 47,000 people, a spokesperson for BAMF told German media. Syria was the top country of origin for asylum seekers in Germany this year, according to BAMF.
Belgium also announced the applications of more than 3,000 Syrians have been put on hold.
“We decided today to stop handling Syrian asylum applications for the time being,” a spokesperson for Belgium’s Commissioner General for Refugees and Stateless Persons (CGRS) said.
A civil war broke out in Syria following country-wide protests in 2011, culminating in the Arab Spring and Assad’s subsequent crackdown on dissent. Nearly 600,000 Syrians have been killed during the fighting since then, while millions more have fled to neighboring countries and further afield, including Europe. Assad, who was in power for 25 years until fleeing to Moscow with his family, has been accused of torture and of using chemical weapons on his own people.
After the news broke of the victory of the rebel factions, led by Islamist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), thousands of Syrians took to the streets of European capitals Sunday to celebrate the end of the regime.
