COPENHAGEN — Despite mounting pressure from lawmakers and
civil society organizations, Denmark is determined to push ahead with efforts
to return refugees to war-torn Syria as it claims conditions in parts of the
country have improved.
اضافة اعلان
On Tuesday, the EU’s top migration official expressed
concern about the approach after the Nordic country decided last year to review
hundreds of residency permits for Syrian asylum seekers.
In response, hundreds of protesters gathered in front of the
Danish parliament last week to protest the move to revoke residency permits,
echoing calls from NGOs and EU lawmakers, who say Syria is not safe to return
to.
“Denmark has been open and honest from day one. We have made
it clear to the Syrian refugees that their residence permit is temporary and
that the permit can be revoked if the need for protection ceases to exist,” Immigration
Minister Mattias Tesfaye told Reuters on Tuesday.
Since 2019, more than 200
Syrian nationals from the Damascus
region have had their residency permit revoked by Denmark out of more than 600
cases that were reviewed, according to the Danish Immigration Service.
The EU’s migration commissioner, Sweden’s Ylva Johansson,
said she had raised the matter with Copenhagen, where the government assured
her it would not force deportations.
“Nobody could be forced to return to Syria,” Johansson told
a news conference, expressing doubt that those who cannot be sent back should
have their right to work or study revoked. “This is something that concerns
me.”
Also in 2019, the Danish government started offering Syrians
money for leaving the country, around 175,000 Danish crowns ($28,427) per
person. At least 250 Syrian nationals have voluntarily returned to Syria with
such support since then.
“When the conditions in their home country have improved,
former refugees should return to the home country and re-establish their life
there,” Tesfaye said.
In a letter addressed to Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen,
EU-lawmakers on Friday expressed regret at Denmark’s efforts to “expel Syrian
refugees” and urged Frederiksen to make a “180-degree turnaround” in the
country’s asylum policy.
“Deportations to a country at war must never be normal.
Denmark should not take a vanguard role here,” said the letter signed by 33
lawmakers from 12
EU countries, including Germany and France.
Sweden and the United Kingdom have also concluded that the
general conditions in Syria’s capital region have improved.
But the
Danish Refugee Council, an NGO, said Denmark was the
only country in Europe to start systematically rescinding Syrian refugees’
residence permits on those grounds.
Both the European Council and the European Parliament have
issued declarations saying conditions are not in place for the safe and
voluntary return of Syrian refugees.
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