Germany had hoped that a significant portion of the 900,000 Syrians it has received could begin to return. However, the Syrian Foreign Minister Shaibani pours cold water on this expectation: forced returns will not be accepted. He thereby sends a message to Syrians who do not wish to return: it is simply a matter of holding fast in Germany.

900,000 Syrians of course constitute a significant transfer of capital to a Syria on the brink.

Much suggests that Damascus is speaking with at least two tongues. The new leader, Sharaa, was recently in Berlin. When Merz says that Sharaa promised to retrieve the Syrians, the latter responds by stating that this was Merz’s words, not his.

The Germans are being outmanoeuvred on their own half.

The message is entirely clear:

Syria will not accept Syrians who are forcibly deported from Germany, says the country’s Foreign Minister.

“We categorically reject any attempt at forced deportation,” writes Asaad al-Shaibani on X.

According to the Syrian Foreign Minister, Syrians in other countries are “a strategic resource, not a burden”.

One must call it boundless impertinence for a Foreign Minister to state openly that the 900,000 Syrians are a strategic resource. For Syria. Another country pays the “burden”.
Syrian refugees who choose to return voluntarily to the country, however, will be offered a safe and dignified environment, Shaibani promises.

Syria’s acting President Ahmed al-Sharaa visited Berlin earlier in the week.

On that occasion, Federal Chancellor Friedrich Merz spoke of the possibility that 80 per cent of the approximately 900,000 Syrians in Germany could return to their homeland within three years.

According to Merz, returning Syrians are needed in the reconstruction of the war-torn country, but he emphasised that “those who wish to remain in Germany and are well integrated will be able to remain in Germany”.

Merz further claimed that the proposal that 80 per cent should return came from Sharaa, which the Syrian President rejects.

During a visit to London, Sharaa maintained that the proposal came from Merz, and that the return of refugees presupposes the reconstruction of Syria.

Sharaa also emphasised that no Syrian refugees can be sent back by force. (NTB)

When countries such as Saudi Arabia wish to rid themselves of foreign nationals, they simply deposit them at the border and leave them to their fate. This meets with “no” international protests.

So long as European countries continue to stand with their caps in hand in their own countries, they will in time lose them.