Just days after the fall of Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad in December, Greece became one of several EU countries to suspend decisions on asylum applications filed by Syrian nationals. Over 9,000 Syrian applicants in the country are now in legal limbo as a result.
Greek officials told openDemocracy the indefinite pause was put in place to protect applicants, not endanger them. “Most Syrian asylum seekers cite persecution by the Assad regime,” said a senior migration ministry official, who asked to remain anonymous as the ministry did not wish to officially respond to openDemocracy’s questions.
If we were to issue decisions now, their applications would either be rejected or would receive the more limited benefits of subsidiary protection. We are monitoring how the situation in Syria is evolving to assess the safety for returns, and we’re exploring whether to expand subsidiary protection.
Critics contend that this explanation is disingenuous. Natassa Strachini, an asylum expert and Legal Coordinator at Refugee Support Aegean, a leading Greek non-profit, said asylum officers can and should decide on a case-by-case basis if it is safe to return. The toppling of Assad alone, she said, does not render asylum claims void.
Marion Bouchetel, a lawyer with Legal Centre Lesvos, agreed. “The decision to freeze all procedures until further notice is certainly not ‘protecting’ Syrian asylum seekers,” Bouchetel said.
If the Greek Asylum Service and the European Union Agency for Asylum wanted to take a protective stance towards Syrian asylum seekers, they could in fact continue the assessment of their individual claims, taking into account – as fast as possible – the new information available about the dangerous situation in the country, including the bombings, airstrikes and recent killings of hundreds of civilians.
Based on the country's current situation and the real risk of serious harm that civilians are currently facing there, the Greek Asylum Service could, at a bare minimum, decide to grant subsidiary protection to Syrians who do not qualify for refugee status, in application of the law.
Legal Centre Lesvos is a non-profit providing legal aid on the Greek island of Lesvos, where Syrians form the second-largest group of asylum seekers.
Even with a new interim government, the persecution and risks to the lives of many Syrians will likely continue, and is by no means temporary
Bouchetel further believes the processing suspension violates the EU Asylum Procedure Directive, illegally prolonging the cases of thousands of vulnerable asylum seekers and indefinitely exposing them to inhumane conditions in camps. This directive allows governments to postpone decisions on asylum claims, but only for brief periods of uncertainty in an applicant’s country of origin.
This, Bouchetel argued, shouldn’t be applicable to Syria. “The situation in Syria remains extremely volatile, unsafe, and uncertain,” she said. “Even with a new interim government, the persecution and risks to the lives of many Syrians will likely continue and is by no means a temporary issue.”
The limits of subsidiary protection
Alongside many other asylum experts, Strachini rejects subsidiary protection as a potential response to Syria’s recent change in regime. Subsidiary protection is a status awarded to asylum seekers who do not qualify as refugees but would still face serious harm if returned to their countries of origin.
“Subsidiary protection affords reduced rights,” Strachini said. “It has a significantly shorter duration (only one year), does not allow for family reunification, and travel documents are issued conditionally and revoked when the circumstances that warranted the protection end.”
Until now, Syrians had generally been granted full refugee status. Strachini said that given the ongoing instability in Syria, the uncertainty regarding human rights protection, and safety concerns for vulnerable groups such as women, there is no justifiable reason for the Greek government to freeze decisions or downgrade Syrians’ rights en masse.
“The suspension traps Syrians in a hostage-like situation, worsened by poor reception conditions that leave them physically and psychologically exhausted,” she said. According to Strachini, the solution is clear: continue to grant Syrian asylum seekers full refugee status.
A Kafkaesque limbo
So far Athens’s new policy toward Syrian asylum seekers has led to inconsistent, even absurd outcomes.
Abdul*, a 61-year-old man from Idlib, fled Syria along with his wife and their three grandchildren, in late 2024. He and his wife lost four sons during the brutal civil war. One was killed in an airstrike, one was shot, one was murdered, and one was kidnapped. “To this day he is missing despite my efforts to locate him,” Abdul said.
The family arrived in Lesvos just a month before Assad was ousted. Abdul and his wife gained refugee status soon after applying, but their grandchildren – aged 14, 13, and 11 – remain caught in a procedural tangle. “They don’t even have an asylum interview date,” Abdul said.
Safety, a home, and work are essential to return, and we have none
Documents show the children were placed under the temporary care of their grandparents, yet no one can predict when, or if, they will receive asylum. Abdul and his wife no longer receive support because they are recognised refugees. With mounting despair, they spend their days on Lesvos comforting their grandchildren while seeking answers that no one seems able to provide.
“We are desperate,” he said. “Their father was killed; we are all these children have left.”
Returning to Syria, Abdul said, is not an option for the family. “The new leaders seem almost as bad as Assad. We’ve lost our jobs, home, and loved ones. I am old – who will care for the children? Safety, a home, and work are essential to return, and we have none,” he said.
His hope is that his grandchildren will eventually secure refugee status and travel documents. These would allow the family to join his surviving son in Germany, where the children can access further family support and have a chance at a decent life.
Repatriation dreams meet harsh realities
Since the onset of the Syrian revolution in 2011, over six million Syrians have sought refuge in neighbouring nations like Turkey, Lebanon, and Jordan, EU border states such as Greece, and destination countries like Germany. Assad’s fall sparked hopes of return among the millions who had fled an oppressive dictatorship and civil war – a prospect also welcomed by European capitals like Athens.
Since December, over 350,000 Syrians are estimated to have returned, with most travelling from neighbouring countries. But in Greece, few appear ready to follow. By mid-December, only three Syrians nationwide had sought repatriation. Since then, only a small number of individuals have made requests after losing their refugee status, asylum lawyers and Greek officials said.
Most Syrian refugees say they hope to return one day, but only if key barriers – safety and access to housing, jobs, and basic services – are resolved. Over 60% consider it important to see how things are in the country before making any final decisions to return. For now, the country’s reality dashes such hopes, especially for Syrians who have made a life in Europe.
Bashar Deeb, a 35-year-old journalist, was recently confronted with this reality on a return visit to Syria. Deeb recalled that the week leading to Assad’s dramatic ouster last December had been the happiest of his life. Having left Syria in 2008 on a scholarship to study media at the University of Athens, he had not seen his homeland since 2012. “If only I could freeze those moments in a continuous loop! This was the end of a dictatorship that robbed millions of our best years.”
Two months later, driven by a longing to see his country again, Deeb flew from Athens to Damascus. At passport control, an officer told him, “Bashar, you can enter. Syria is free now.” Deeb said he wanted to embrace the officer. The rest of his ten-day journey through Syria proved bittersweet.
“In taxis and on the streets, people openly discussed politics. For the first time, I experienced freedom of speech in Syria and felt safe almost everywhere,” he recalled.
But there was also a harsher reality, one that Deeb noticed almost immediately after leaving the airport for the 377 km drive north to Aleppo, his hometown. “The highway was devastated, and the scenery felt post‐apocalyptic,” he said. Large stretches of towns along the route – through Damascus, Homs, Hama and Idlib – lay in ruins.
In Aleppo, once a bustling metropolis of two million, pollution from makeshift heating was rampant, and electricity was available for only one hour a day. The pressing question on everyone’s lips was: “When will we have electricity?”
Over 13 years of civil war have devastated Syria’s basic infrastructure, from schools and hospitals to essential public services. This destruction has rendered Syria one of the most fragile states in the world, and poses a major obstacle to the mass repatriation or deportation of Syrians.
Even for those like Deeb – who holds work and residence permits in Greece, has a stable job, and can travel relatively freely – the prospect of permanent return remains remote.
“I dream of a day when my future child can learn Arabic and embrace our culture – and for my Greek partner to experience my homeland,” he said. “But I would only return after Syria had undergone massive reconstruction. Right now, there is no viable economy or opportunity.”
The cost of rebuilding Syria could run into the hundreds of billions of dollars. The country’s GDP has shrunk by 75% since 2010, with 90% of Syrians living in poverty and facing food insecurity. Nearly 17 million – eight in ten – relied on aid in 2024, the highest number recorded since the beginning of the civil war in 2011.
Experts warn that mass returns of Syrians are only feasible after Syria’s security, basic services, and infrastructure are fundamentally stabilised. Currently, this is far from the case, and getting there may take decades. Premature returns would likely exacerbate Syria’s dire situation, as they too would need housing, food and jobs.
A contentious EU proposal
EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has vowed that Europe will do its part to support Syria at this critical juncture. And, as Syria’s largest aid donor, the EU has pledged €235 million for 2025.
But in the area of returns, emerging EU policies may also be creating further complications. The European Commission is currently proposing a new legal framework for returns, which has been described as “discriminative and punitive” by rights advocates.
Mariana Gkliati, an assistant professor of migration and asylum law at Tilburg University in the Netherlands, said the draft legislation is “even more extreme” than expected. Gkliati warned that the regulation in its current form “would be devastating”, eroding the rights of migrants and threatening the rule of law in the EU.
The new legislation would allow individuals to be deported even when their appeal is pending
According to Gkliati, one of the most controversial aspects of the regulation is the proposal for “return hubs” in non-EU countries, where individuals could be forcibly sent despite having no ties to that country. She added that the framework would reduce options for voluntary return, expand detention, and punish returnees with measures ranging from reduced living standards in detention to re-entry bans.
The legislation would also require individual member states to enforce EU-wide deportation decisions and allow individuals to be deported even when their appeal is pending. For migrants in Greece, who are often already subjected to substandard detention facilities – this could mean a further erosion of fundamental rights.
“On their own, Assad’s fall and regime change do not make Syria safe,” Gkliati said. “Returnees must have access to fundamental rights – housing, education and work – to rebuild their lives, with safety and stability assessed over time and on an individual basis, taking into account the different needs of minority groups, women, and those with ties to the former regime.”
She also emphasised the importance of moving away from forced returns. “Any return to Syria must be voluntary and flexible, incorporating measures such as ‘go and see visits’, so that Syrians can make a well-informed decision about their future.”
In early March, interior and migration ministers from the EU discussed Syria at a meeting in Brussels. According to a Greek official with direct knowledge of the talks, there was broad consensus that recognised Syrian refugees should be allowed to visit their homeland without losing their refugee status – in the hope that some would find it safe to return permanently.
However, events on the ground have since overtaken even these discussions. Recent violence along Syria’s coast in the northwest – marked by fierce clashes between the Islamist government’s forces and pro-Assad loyalists, and massacres of members of the Alawite community – has claimed over 1,000 lives. Over 200 Syrians have also been killed by landmines in the three months since Assad’s fall, and Israel maintains its occupation of a 400 sq km area beyond the already occupied Golan Heights, that it seized after December.
“Everything is up in the air again,” the official sighed.
*Name changed.
