Amnesty calls on governments not to ‘plunge’ Syrian refugees into further ‘uncertainty’

Amnesty International has called on governments to continue assessing asylum claims on a “case-by-case basis”, after several European countries announced they would be suspending new applications following al-Assad’s ouster.

Eve Geddie, the director of Amnesty’s European Institutions Office, said the “safety and agency” of refugees and asylum seekers should be prioritised over “rabid, anti-refugee politics currently gripping Europe”.

“The situation in Syria is extremely volatile. Five decades of brutality and repression cannot be undone overnight. But European governments have wasted no time halting asylum applications of Syrians,” Geddie said.

“At this time of turbulence and change, countries should avoid plunging Syrian refugees and people seeking asylum into situations of further uncertainty and precarity,” she added.

Amnesty’s call echoes that of Human Rights Watch, which said in a Wednesday statement that “no government” should be sending or planning to send Syrian refugees back to the country “involuntarily” after al-Assad’s fall.