Denmark pressures Syrian refugees to leave

Six years after fleeing the war in Syria, Damascus native Bilal Tamam is “fully integrated” in Denmark: he runs his own moving company and his children enjoy sleeping with Danish friends.

But soon the Tamam family can be told to leave as Copenhagen says Damascus and surrounding cities are safe enough for their return, a move that has sparked outrage from activists and refugees.

“Of couse [Syria] not sure [to go back to]”Said Tamam, 51, who will soon know if the Danish authorities will renew his residence permit.” Those of us who left are considered traitors. ”

Fighting has subsided in much of the country, but activists and analysts advising the Danish government on Syria this week urged authorities to reconsider the decision, warning that “it could lead to a worrying trend in European refugee policy.”

Critics fear that some EU states will remain the same and try to return refugees to conflict-affected countries. Proposals to renew the EU’s broader approach to migration and asylum, released last year, “confirmed the focus on sealing borders and increasing returns,” Human Rights Watch said in its global report. annual in January.

Nearly 33,000 Syrian refugees and their families live in Denmark, a small fraction of the 5.6 million who have fled their homeland since the country’s bloody civil war began in 2011. Immigrants account for about 9% of the country’s population. population of Denmark and the immigration debate has been politically charged for a long time. The center-left and center-right have competed to push through tough laws, which allow, for example, the confiscation of cash and jewelry from immigrants.

Refugees – such as Tamam – who were not considered personally threatened by the Damascus regime have had to renew their residence every year and in 2019 the government overturned the general protection granted to all Syrians when the war began. .

The Danish Refugee Appeals Board has since concluded that security in Damascus and its environs has improved enough because the need to protect people “who are not individually persecuted but who have a temporary residence permit granted under the general circumstances, it has ceased to exist, ”said Mattias Tesfaye, Denmark’s immigration minister in the Social Democratic government.

“Denmark has been open and honest since day one,” Tesfaye said. “We have made it clear to Syrian refugees that their residence permit is temporary.”

Now 461 Syrians in the city of Damascus, including Tamam, will hear “whether their residence permits will be retained, extended, changed, revoked or denied an extension,” the Ministry of Immigration and Integration said this month, adding that the state of 350 is being checked more people from the surrounding areas of Damascus. The Danish immigration service said it is estimated that 50 Syrians are now “staying in return centers in Denmark,” considered deportation centers.

Government advisers in Syria “strongly condemn[ed] the Danish government’s decision “in this week’s statement, adding:” We do not recognize our views on subsequent government findings or policies, nor do we consider that Denmark’s Syrian refugee policy fully reflects real conditions on the ground. ” Denmark is subject to international bans on the “return” of refugees: their return to a country where they are likely to be persecuted.

“Denmark’s decision was based on the fact that there were no more airstrikes because the Syrian government had reclaimed most of the territory of Damascus government,” said Sara Kayyali, HRW’s lead researcher in Syria and signatory of the statement. However, “it is very clear that Syria is not safe to return [as] the situation has not improved when we talk about arrests and ill-treatment. . . the risks of persecution are still very much alive, ”he said. “You have no way of identifying if anyone is safe in Syria until that person returns.”

At the same time, Syria’s civil conflict has turned into a widespread famine, as its battered war economy has collapsed almost due to the Covid-19 pandemic. The UN food agency estimates that 60% of Syrians cannot access enough food.

It is unclear whether other European countries will follow the Danish measure. The Syrians have formed the the highest proportion of asylum seekers in the EU since 2013. Although Sweden and the United Kingdom have also noted that some parts of Syria are now less dangerous, Denmark has become the first to act.

In practice, Denmark cannot deport refugees to Syria because it does not maintain official relations with the regime of President Bashar al-Assad, who has regained most of its territory lost by the rebels. Instead, it offers refugees financial incentives to recover. Those who lose their status and do not leave Denmark face indefinite detention in Danish deportation centers. According to the immigration ministry, some 250 refugees voluntarily returned to Syria in 2019.

Ever since he fled Syria by land and sea and arrived in Denmark on foot, Tamam has done everything from making pizza to cleaning. Denmark “became my country, the people here are like my people,” he said. His family joined him after three years. They also love Denmark. “My little daughter says to me,‘ Baba. . . I don’t want to leave, ”Tamam said.

Additional reports from Michael Peel in Brussels