Karner does not travel to Syria after warnings
Austria's Interior Minister Gerhard Karner (ÖVP) canceled his planned trip to Syria on Thursday with his German counterpart Nancy Faeser (SPD) due to specific warnings of a terrorist threat. "The potential threat to the delegations and the deployed security forces was not justifiable," the Interior Ministry announced early Thursday morning. The decision was made jointly by both ministries.
Karner currently in Jordan
Karner and Faeser are currently in the Jordanian capital, Amman. The planned onward journey to the Syrian capital Damascus for the morning was canceled. The focus of the discussions would have been security issues and perspectives on the return of Syrian refugees in the event of Syria's stabilization. The trip had not been announced in advance and was planned under high security precautions, according to the ministry.
Planned were discussions between Faeser and Karner as well as representatives of the United Nations, the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR), UNICEF, and the World Food Programme. Meetings with the Interior and Foreign Ministers of the Syrian transitional government were also on the agenda.
Since the overthrow of Syrian ruler Bashar al-Assad last December, a total of 280,000 Syrians have returned to their homeland from abroad, according to the latest United Nations estimates. Almost 30 percent of the millions of Syrian refugees in the Middle East intend to return next year, according to UN figures.
Numerous Syrians in Austria
According to Statistics Austria, 104,699 Syrians live in Austria (as of 11.2.). After the fall of the Assad regime, asylum decisions for Syrian men and women were suspended and more than 2,400 revocation procedures were initiated. On Wednesday, the government also decided on a pause in family reunification for refugees. This year, only 39 Syrians received asylum status.
At the beginning of the year, around 975,000 Syrian nationals were living in Germany, reports the German news agency dpa. Among them were around 10,200 who were obliged to leave the country. About 9,100 of them had a temporary suspension of deportation. For more than two months, the German Interior Ministry has been working on a regulation that would allow refugees from Syria to travel back to their old homeland for a short time without risking their protection status in Germany.
Assad No Longer in Power
Since the beginning of the Syrian civil war, which started in 2011 with the brutal suppression of protests against the Assad government, more than 500,000 people have been killed. Millions fled the war, economic, and humanitarian hardship to neighboring and other countries. In Turkey alone, which shares a 900-kilometer border with Syria, around 2.9 million Syrian refugees live.
Assad was overthrown on December 8 by a rebel alliance led by the Islamist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS). Assad fled to Russia. Since then, the country has been led by a transitional government under President Ahmed al-Sharaa. Three weeks ago, a surprise attack by Alawite Assad supporters triggered a military action in the coastal region in the northwest, resulting in hundreds of deaths - including many Alawite civilians. In contrast, there are positive developments such as the agreement of a pact between the transitional government and the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) on March 10.
(APA/Red)
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