Austria is preparing to deport a Syrian man whose asylum status was revoked due to a criminal conviction, in what an EU official and rights groups say will be Europe’s first forced deportation to Syria since the fall of President Bashar al-Assad.
Rights groups are concerned that Austria’s plan could set a precedent, encouraging other European Union member states to follow suit amid rising anti-migration sentiment across the 27-nation bloc.
The 32-year-old man, who was granted asylum in Austria in 2014, lost his refugee status in February 2019 because of his criminal record, his legal adviser Ruxandra Staicu said. {snip}
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{snip} The Austrian government argues that Assad’s fall means the situation has changed and it has begun proceedings to strip some refugees of their status, though rights groups say it is premature to do so.
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Since 2015, European countries have received around 1.68 million asylum applications from Syrian nationals. Some governments, most notably Germany, initially welcomed them warmly as civil war ravaged their homeland.
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With the fall of Assad last December, many EU governments were quick to suspend the processing of Syrian asylum applications, and some have called for the security situation in Syria to be reassessed to enable deportations to resume.
In Austria, former Chancellor Karl Nehammer, from the ruling Austrian People’s Party (OVP), is among those calling for such a reassessment, amid pressure from the far-right Freedom Party.
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