Schoof: Refugees do not have to return to Syria if country is declared unsafe

The Cabinet will not send Syrians back if research shows that parts of the Arab country are not safe. Prime Minister Dick Schoof said this after the Cabinet meeting on Friday. The coalition wants to send Syrian asylum seekers back if parts of the country, where a civil war has been raging for years, prove to be safe.

As a result, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs must set up a new official report about the situation in Syria. This is normally a lengthy process but the goal is for this to be finished by the end of the year. This document will be compiled independently and will make clear whether parts of the country are safe. It will then be handed over to the Ministry of Asylum and Migration, who will decide their policies based on it, Minister of Foreign Affairs Casper Veldkamp stated. "It is an objective, carefully drafted official report, and I have no substantive involvement in it."

"Well, let it be clear that if the official report does not provide a reason to declare an area safe, you cannot declare an area politically safe," Schoof said at his weekly press conference.

If the accelerated official report is negative for the Cabinet, it does not mean that the measure is off the table, according to the prime minister. As soon as parts of Syria are later declared safe, the Cabinet wants to continue the policy. The Cabinet thinks "that some areas of Syria are indeed safe".

According to him, more EU countries are currently looking at whether Syria is partly safe to send back asylum seekers.

It is currently the case that Syrians who have requested asylum here will not be sent back based on the current official report about Syria from August 2023. The European Court of Justice in Luxembourg ruled earlier this month that people cannot be sent back if only parts of the country of origin are safe. The Schoof I Cabinet looks at this ruling differently, the prime minister said. He assumes that the ruling will not be an obstacle.

Amnesty and UN: Sending people back to Syria is life-threatening

Amnesty International calls the government's plan to send people back to Syria "inhumane and potentially life-threatening". According to the human rights organization, people who are sent back run a real risk of persecution.

Amnesty points out that no part of Syria is safe from return. "They may be victims of torture, rape, sexual violence, and enforced disappearances," Amnesty says . The organization also says that returned refugees are being targeted "because they made the decision to leave the country and seek refuge elsewhere."

The UN Commission of Inquiry on Syria has also spoken out against the cabinet's plans. According to a spokesperson for the UN Commission of Inquiry on Syria, it is not safe under any circumstances to send refugees back to Syria. He says that more and more lawlessness is spreading in the country, which makes it completely unsafe for Syrian refugees, reports Het Parool.