According to a proposal by the Germany’s Interior Ministry, refugees would be permitted to return home if the visit may help them be ready for a future permanent return. Currently, a person’s refugee status can be terminated while they are visiting their home country.
According to an Interior Ministry spokeswoman on Wednesday, the German government intends to permit Syrian refugees to return to their homeland for a certain period of time without jeopardizing their protection status in Germany.
Legally, refugees might lose their asylum protection status if they visit their home country which they left in fear of persecution.
Berlin has restored diplomatic ties with Syria and reopened its embassy in Damascus since the overthrow of Syrian tyrant Bashar Al Assad last December.
Why is Germany making this proposal?
The plan calls for allowing Syrians who are refugees in Germany to return home for a total of four weeks, or two separate two-week intervals.
According to a ministry spokesperson, the proposal’s goal is to give Syrians the freedom to decide whether or not to return on their own.
“To do this, people from Syria must be able to see for themselves, for example, whether [their] houses are still standing, whether their relatives are still alive and so on.”
If the situation in Syria continues to normalize, such trips are necessary to allow a substantial number of refugees to return to their homeland, the spokesperson continued.
