Chancellor Friedrich Merz said Monday Syrian refugees in Germany must go home now that their country’s war is over or face deportation.
In his latest hardline comments on migration, Merz said there was “no longer any reason” for Syrians who fled their country’s brutal 13-year war to seek asylum in Germany.
“For those who refuse to return to their country, we can of course expel them,” he said during a visit to Husum, in northern Germany.
German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul said Thursday on a trip to Damascus that the potential for Syrians to return was “very limited” since the war had destroyed much of the country’s infrastructure.
That statement caused a backlash from Merz’s and Wadephul’s conservative Christian Democratic Union, which has been struggling to avoid being outflanked by far-right parties on the explosive issue of migration.
Merz said he had invited Syria’s new interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa, whose Islamist forces ousted longtime ruler Bashar al-Assad last year, to visit Germany to discuss “how we can resolve this together”.
Syria “needs all its strength, and above all Syrians, to rebuild”, Merz said, adding he was confident many would return of their own accord.
Around one million Syrians live in Germany, most having fled the war in a mass exodus in 2015 and 2016.
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© Agence France-Presse
