The interior ministers of the 16 German states will discuss the developments and future of Syrian migrants residing in their country, during their conference scheduled to be held in Hamburg next Wednesday.

The meeting of the interior ministers of the 16 German states comes in Hamburg to redraw public policy towards the Syrian community, which is one of the largest immigrant communities in the country.

This meeting is very vital as it follows the fall of the Assad regime on 8 December 2024, and the subsequent significant change in the approach of the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees (BAMF), amid a sharp divergence in political views among the Christian and Democratic parties-led states on the mechanisms for dealing with humanitarian stays and the feasibility of voluntary return or legal deportation.

Saxony defends Syrian presence

According to the German magazine "Fox", the states have made mixed proposals related to this file, with the state of Lower Saxony presenting a draft resolution defending the Syrian presence.

The draft resolution affirms that many Syrians in Germany are sustainably integrated into society, whether through the sectors of work, study, vocational training, and community participation, noting that the majority of working Syrians occupy jobs in vital sectors, and about half of them are classified as skilled workers.

Lower Saxony's interior minister, Daniela Burns, stated that Syrians are actively contributing to Germany's economic stability.

In this regard, the Federal Minister of the Interior, Alexandre Dobrint, calls for the development of the legal framework for residency for this category in order to provide legal certainty and a reliable chance of survival, calling on the Federal Ministry of the Interior to provide legislative solutions to regulate the right of residence by the autumn of this year.

The draft also urges to improve the chances of survival of Syrian citizens who currently enjoy "tolerance" (temporary residency) and good integration, and who are estimated to number about 10,000 Syrians residing under this clause due to their inability to be deported for various reasons, such as serious illness or lack of necessary documentation, despite not meeting the conditions for asylum.

"Category B States" Demand Opening of Deportation Routes

In contrast, the CDU-led states (known as Category B states) have taken a more hawkish approach, with the Ministry of the Interior in the state of Hesse putting residency status for Syrian nationals on the agenda of the conference.

The ministry, headed by Roman Busic, revealed a sharp change in the approach of the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees towards asylum applications, explaining that out of 25,923 asylum applications submitted by Syrians during 2025, only 532 were approved.

The Hesse Interior Ministry expects that the next phase will see the issuance of official decisions to cancel the prohibited protection for a number of Syrians, which will result in them being asked to leave German territory.

Hesse's interior minister, Roman Busek, stressed in his remarks to the magazine that after the end of the "civil war", it is important to reassess the situation in Syria, pointing out the need to return to regular deportations in the long term, while welcoming the talks between the federal interior minister and the new Syrian government.

Busick stressed that the asylum system is not an immigration system, and that anyone asked to leave the country must leave, including those who have been granted temporary protection due to war conditions (more than 500,000 Syrians in Germany currently hold temporary humanitarian residence permits under subsidiary protection or the Geneva Convention on Refugees).

Besides deporting the perpetrators, the minister called for the return of Syrians who have not integrated well and have been dependent on social assistance for long periods to ease the financial burden on the German welfare system.

Numbers of Returnees After the Fall of the Regime

Official statistics accompanying the poll conducted by Fox magazine in the 16 states show that following the fall of Bashar al-Assad's regime on December 8, 2024, the number of Syrians returning from Germany is still very limited, with only 10,009 Syrians leaving the country so far, while more than 900,000 Syrians without German passports are still residing in the country.

As a result of this stalemate in departure rates, the German government is currently considering introducing new incentives and financial gains to encourage Syrian refugees to choose to return voluntarily to their country, by offering a financial reward of up to €8,000 to the person who wishes to return.