Germany’s Minister of the Interior Nancy Faeser believes it would be sensible to allow Syrian refugees a one-time trip to their country of origin without affecting their protection status.
“People could see for themselves whether houses are still standing, whether family members are still alive with whom they may have lost contact a long time ago, and whether they are really safe in their home country,” the ministry spokesman, Maximilian Kall, said in Berlin on Monday.
Faeser’s opnion on the issue is similar to that held by Annalena Baerbock, Germany’s Foreign Minister.
Baerbock had said that after the overthrow of ruler Bashar al-Assad, refugees should be given the opportunity to explore the situation on the ground to see if it is possible for them to return permanently. She believes there should be an exceptional approval for this. Faeser’s Interior Ministry says no change in the law would be required.
Currently, if persons entitled to protection travel to their countries of origin, the legal presumption applies that the conditions for protection no longer exist. Exceptions are only made if the trip is “morally imperative”.
The Interior Ministry says there were almost 975,000 Syrian nationals in Germany at the end of October, according to the Central Register of Foreigners. The majority of them are people who came to the country as asylum seekers.
Bavaria’s interior minister, Joachim Herrmann, said the “adventurous” plan was flawed. He told dpa in Munich it gave the impression that “Syrians themselves could decide whether they still like it at home or not. That would open the floodgates to abuse.”
