Syrian minister: No need for hasty return of refugees from Germany

The foreign minister from Syria’s de-facto transitional government, Asaad al-Shaybani, said there’s no need for Syrian refugees in Germany to make a hasty return to the country.

“They are safe there,” al-Shaybani told dpa in Damascus, where he is due to meet German Development Minister Svenja Schulze.

The refugees who have been taken in by Germany are also better off than many Syrian refugees and displaced persons in other regions of the world, al-Shaybani said.

The majority of the approximately 975,000 Syrian citizens living in Germany came as refugees, most of them during the country’s bloody civil war which lasted for more than a decade.

German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser has suggested allowing Syrians in Germany to make a one-off trip back to their homeland without risking their refugee status, in order to give them a chance to see what conditions are like.

A ministry spokesman said application instructions to allow such trips are currently being drawn up.