Minister for Justice Helen McEntee is expected to make a final decision on whether Ireland will continue accepting international protections from Syrian in the aftermath of the collapse of the al-Assad regime late last week.
While a spokesman for the Department of Justice confirmed to Gript that Ireland is pausing asylum decisions for Syrian applicants, for the time being, the government has yet to follow Germany, Italy Austria, and other EU member states who have already frozen Syrian applications entirely.
A final decision will be made Thursday when Minister McEntee jets into Brussels for a meeting of EU justice ministers. An estimated 2,500 Syrian refugees have been resettled in Ireland since the outbreak of the Civil War in 2011, with jubilant scenes erupting near the former site of the Abbeyfield Hotel in Ballaghaderreen, Co Roscommon, which has been operational as a refugee centre since 2017.
While many European countries including Germany and Italy had sought repatriation deals for Syrian refugees in recent years Ireland had originally pledged to welcome 2,900 refugees between 2019 and 2023 before disruption caused by COVID, the Ukrainian War, and more recently Israel’s invasion of Lebanon.
Ahead of a snap election in February which is expected to see gains for the right-wing populist AfD party the left-wing German government of Olaf Scholz is reportedly prepared to offer Syrians €1,000 to voluntarily return to their homeland with approximately 1.4 million Syrians resident in Germany.
Insider reports in Brussels indicate that political pressure from populists is forcing the EU to move towards fast-trackdeportations with Cyrpus already shutting down its asylum process entirely due to fears of weaponised migration stemming from the conflict.
Ireland is expected to consider whether to recognise the as-of-yet ambiguous alliance that ousted Assad last week led by the Turkish-backed militia Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS). Micheál Martin is among the 27 EU foreign ministers to discuss normalising relations with the post-Assad regime in Damascus next Monday in Brussels as both the UK and the U.S. consider delisting HTS as a proscribed terrorist organisation.
A move towards commencing even the partial repatriation of Syrian refugees would be of major significance, not just for Europe but to Ireland, with similar agreements being debated over the Taliban government in Afghanistan.
Despite continued violence across Syria, early indicators point to a mass movement of Syrians returning home with thousands flocking southwards at Turkish border-crossings throughout the weekend.