German Chancellor Friedrich Merz has publicly declared that Syrian refugees "no longer have any grounds for asylum," and could therefore qualify for deportation. To this end, Merz has invited Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa to discuss coordinated repatriations — despite repeated warnings from Germany's foreign minister and the UN that conditions in Syria remain unsafe.
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz has said that refugees from Syria who are living in Germany must return home now that the civil war in their country is over.
During a visit to the northern German town of Husum on Monday (November 3), Merz stressed that "(w)ithout these people, the reconstruction [of Syria] is impossible.
"There are now no longer any grounds for asylum in Germany, and therefore we can also begin with repatriations," he said, adding that he expected many Syrians to return voluntarily to help rebuild their country.
"Syria needs all its strength, and above all Syrians, to rebuild," Merz said. "And those in Germany who then refuse to return to their country we can, of course, deport in the near future," the chancellor added.
The divisive statement came as he announced that he had invited Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa to Berlin to discuss to discuss "how we can resolve this together," referring to the prospect of deporting Syrian citizens — initially focusing those with criminal records.
"We will now begin to implement this in a very concrete manner," Merz told reporters.
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Far-right exerting pressure to get serious about migration
Germany currently hosts around one million Syrian nationals, most of whom arrived during the 2015 – 2016 refugee movement under former chancellor Angela Merkel's government.
Merz, who like Merkel is also a member of the centrist-conservative Christian Democrats, has however adopted a much tougher stance on migration, as he continues to face growing pressure under rising public support for the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD).
The AfD, which has surged ahead of Merz's conservatives in some opinion polls ahead of a number of upcoming state elections next year, has been campaigning aggressively on anti-migration themes.
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'Barely possible to live in Syria with dignity'
Merz's remarks, however, have also put him at odds with his own foreign minister, Johann Wadephul, who returned from a trip to Syria last week with a warning that conditions in Syria remained devastating.
"It is barely possible for people to live here with dignity," Wadephul said while visiting Harasta, northeast of the capital Damascus, noting he did not expect large numbers of Syrians to return to their country voluntarily in the near future.
AfD co-leader Alice Weidel meanwhile referred to Wadephul's comments as "a slap in the face to the victims of Islamist violence," following the arrest of a 22-year-old Syrian in Berlin last week, who is accused of planning a Jihadist attack.
'Male Sunni Syrians unlikely to face risks'
The United Nations has also warned that around 70 percent of Syria's population still depended heavily on humanitarian aid, highlighting that much of the Middle Eastern country's infrastructure remained in ruins.
But Merz and his allies nevertheless continue to argue that the situation has fundamentally changed since Assad’s fall in December 2024, and that it is time for refugees to help rebuild their homeland.
In particular, Chancellery Chief Thorsten Frei said that young Sunni Muslim men were "certainly not subject to any danger or risk of destitution in Syria anymore."
"Germany will only be able to help people in such situations on a lasting basis if, once the country has been pacified, a large proportion of these people then return to their homeland," Frei added.
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Few Syrians have left Germany to return home in 2025
Only about 1,000 Syrians have returned to Syria so far this year, usually with German voluntary repatriation assistance. Roughly about the same number of Syrians are believed to have returned without going through an official repatriation program.
Though the German government hopes that more Syrians will still return voluntarily, officials acknowledge that forced repatriations could face major legal hurdles in practise.
Hundreds of thousands still hold temporary residence permits; about a quarter of all Syrian refugees who came to Germany are believed to have received German citizenship in the ten years since their initial arrival, with many more expected to qualify in the coming months.
Merz, however, insists that his policy direction is clear: "I will say it again — the civil war in Syria is over. There are now no longer any grounds for asylum in Germany."
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with Reuters, dpa