Austria’s conservative-led government said on Friday it is offering Syrian refugees a ‘return bonus’ of 1,000 euros to move back to their home country after the fall of Bashar al-Assad.
Conservative Chancellor Karl Nehammer reacted quickly to Assad’s overthrow on Sunday, saying the same day that the security situation in Syria should be reassessed so as to allow deportations of Syrian refugees.
Deporting people against their will is not possible until it becomes clearer what direction Syria is taking.
It comes as Germany’s lawmakers earlier this week called for Syrian refugees to be deported back to their war-torn homeland.
Hours after Syrians jubilantly took to the streets in several German cities on Sunday, leader of the far-right Alternative for Germany party Alice Weidel declared anyone celebrating ‘a free Syria evidently no longer has a reason to flee’.
For now, Austria’s government has said it will focus on voluntary deportations.
It has also stopped processing Syrians’ asylum applications, as have more than a dozen European countries.
Like many conservatives in Europe, Nehammer is under pressure from the far right, with the two groups often seeming to try to outbid each other on tough-sounding immigration policies.
An areal photo shows crowds of Syrians raising a giant independence-era flag, used by the opposition since the uprising began in 2011, as they celebrate this week’s fall of Bashar al-Assad at the central Umayyad Square in Damascus on December 13, 2024
A child holds up a weapon as he poses for a photo on the day of the first Friday prayers at the Umayyad Mosque
Syrians are the biggest group of asylum-seekers in Austria, a European Union member state.
‘Austria will support Syrians who wish to return to their home country with a return bonus of 1,000 euros’, Nehammer said in an English language post on X.
‘The country now needs its citizens in order to be rebuilt’.
How many Syrians will take up the offer remains to be seen.
With national flag-carrier Austrian Airlines having suspended flights to the Middle East because of the security situation, the Austrian bonus may not even fully cover travel.
An economy class one-way ticket in a month’s time to Beirut, a common starting point for those heading overland to Damascus, currently costs at least 1,066.10 euros on Turkish Airlines, according to the company’s website.
Austria’s far-right Freedom Party came first in September’s parliamentary election with around 29% of the vote but, as no potential coalition partner was forthcoming, Nehammer is leading coalition talks with the Social Democrats and liberal Neos.
Thousands of Syrians gathered in central Damascus today during their first Friday prayers since Assad’s fall.
People chant slogans and wave independence-era Syrian flags as they gather in the courtyard of the Umayyad mosque in the old city of Damascus
This aerial photo shows Syrians around the Clock Tower in the central city of Homs as they celebrate the fall of Bashar al-Assad’s iron-fisted rule earlier this week
More than half a century of brutal rule by the Assad clan came to a sudden end on Sunday, after a lightning rebel offensive swept across the country and took the capital
A woman lifts a flag of the Syrian revolution bearing a portrait of late rebel fighter and famous chanter Abdel-Basset al-Sarout during celebrations to mark this week’s ouster of president Bashar al-Assad
People gather the mosque and its surroundings with ‘Syrian revolution flag’ and chant slogans calling for the country’s freedom and a ‘new Syria’
A drone view shows Damascus city, after fighters of the ruling Syrian body ousted Syria’s Bashar al-Assad, Syria
Assad fled Syria, closing an era in which suspected dissidents were jailed or killed, and capping nearly 14 years of war that killed more than 500,000 people and displaced millions
A man walks past a portrait of ousted president Bashar al-Assad on the ground as people gather at Saadallah al-Jabiri Square after the Friday noon prayer in Aleppo
More than half a century of brutal rule by the Assad clan came to a sudden end on Sunday, after a lightning rebel offensive swept across the country and took the capital.
Assad fled Syria, closing an era in which suspected dissidents were jailed or killed, and capping nearly 14 years of war that killed more than 500,000 people and displaced millions.
The Friday prayers have a particular symbolism because in the early days of the anti-government uprising-turned-civil-war in Syria in 2011, protesters would turn out en masse after going to the mosque.
‘Unified Syria to build Syria,’ the crowd gathered in Damascus’ Umayyad Square chanted.
Some shouted slurs about the former president and his late father, calling them pigs, an insult that would have previously led to offenders being hauled off to one of the feared detention centers of Assad’s security forces.
The crowd included many families with children, and some of the demonstrators had come from far-flung areas of the country, including from Idlib — the longtime rebel enclave in the northwest of Syria, for years isolated on the other side of the civil war’s battle lines.
Interim prime minister Mohammed al-Bashir addressed a large congregation at Damascus’s landmark Umayyad Mosque.
Thousands flocked to the mosque, some raising the three-star Syrian independence flag which none dared wave in the capital during Assad’s iron-fisted rule.
A woman holds up the flag adopted by the new Syrian rulers, as people celebrate after fighters of the ruling Syrian body ousted Syria’s Bashar al-Assad
Syrians wave ‘revolutionary’ Syrian flags during a celebratory demonstration following the first Friday prayers since Bashar Assad’s ouster
The crowd included many families with children, and some of the demonstrators had come from far-flung areas of the country
man holds up a baby next to a ‘revolutionary’ Syrian flag
Exhilarated crowds chanted ‘the Syrian people is one!’
‘I still feel like I’m dreaming,’ said 52-year-old Khalil Rimo.
‘I still can’t believe that I’m standing next to the Umayyad Mosque… and there are no government thugs’ asking for ID, Rimo said.
‘We are gathering because we’re happy Syria has been freed, we’re happy to have been liberated from the prison in which we lived,’ said Nour Thi al-Ghina, 38.
Thousands of people also gathered in the squares and streets in other Syrian cities, including Homs, Hama and Idlib.
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Publish date : 2024-12-13 16:17:00
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