A worker flashes the V for victory sign as he unloads goods from a container at the mediterranean port of Latakia in western Syria on 30 December. / © AFP
Luxembourg's Association for Support of Immigrant Workers (ASTI) has urged caution in handling Syrian refugees after the Assad regime's fall, as the government suspends 825 asylum applications amid ongoing instability.
The Association for Support of Immigrant Workers (ASTI) appeals for caution in the treatment of Syrian refugees in Luxembourg following the toppling of the Assad regime in Syria in early December. Only two days after Bashar al-Assad was ousted, the Luxembourg government suspended the asylum applications of 825 Syrians, meaning that no decisions will be taken in their cases for the time being.
The organisation in a press release warns that dangers persist for returning Syrians depending on their ethnicity, with clashes and human rights violations ongoing. Nevertheless, Sergio Ferreira, political spokesman for ASTI, has also expressed understanding for the suspension due to the regional instability and the level of uncertainty around Syria's long-term future.
Ferreira contends that Syrians in Luxembourg are overjoyed about the recent events in their home country, but that the asylum application suspension has also plummeted them into great uncertainty.
Similarly to the UN and its refugee support network UNHCR, ASTI also pleads for the autonomy of refugees, allowing them to judge themselves whether they can safely return to their home country. ASTI therefore believes that a person with refugee status, and who is visiting the country they fled from, should automatically lose their status.
In conversation with RTL, Ferreira explained that faith in the new regime differs from person to person. Syrians who are politically engaged tend to favour fear instead of enthusiasm, as some of those newly in power were previously members of the terrorist organisations causing many to flee Syria in the first place.
ASTI aims to remind that examples such as the Arabian Spring or the Taliban return in Afghanistan, where authoritarian or islamic regimes reclaimed power, should teach caution. A forced and unprepared returning of refugees could expose them to serious danger, according to Luxembourg's immigrant support group.
