BERLIN (AP) \u2014 German Chancellor Friedrich Merz raised the prospect of many of the Syrians who came to his country returning to their homeland over the next few years as he met Syria\u2019s leader on Monday, arguing that they are needed to help rebuild the country.<\/p>\n
Syria is trying to rebuild and improve its economy<\/a> after a long civil war that killed nearly half a million people and caused widespread destruction ended with the ouster of former President Bashar Assad in December 2024. <\/p>\n The war also prompted huge numbers of Syrians to flee the country. Germany was a favored destination<\/a>, and still hosted more than 900,000 Syrian citizens last year. Many people who arrived from Syria have gained German citizenship<\/a> in recent years.<\/p>\n Reducing migration<\/a> in general, and stepping up returns of migrants<\/a> who aren\u2019t entitled to stay, has been one priority of Merz\u2019s government, which took office nearly 11 months ago.<\/p>\n Merz emphasized as interim President President Ahmad al-Sharaa made his first visit that Germany\u2019s priority is to send back to Syria migrants who have committed crimes. \u201cWe have a small group here, but a group that causes us problems, of Syrians who have offended whom we now urgently want to repatriate,\u201d he said at a news conference.<\/p>\n \u201cIn the longer perspective of the next three years, that … was the wish of President al-Sharaa, about 80% of the Syrians currently living in Germany should return to their homeland,\u201d he added. \u201cWe have an interest in those who live here, want to stay and are well-integrated \u2026 that these people stay in Germany. But many who are here are needed at home.\u201d <\/p>\n Al-Sharaa didn\u2019t confirm the 80% figure. He noted that the many Syrians in Germany include \u201c6,000 doctors working in hospitals, and more than a quarter of a million people who pay taxes and contribute actively to the German economy,\u201d and described them as \u201ccommon national assets\u201d to the two countries. <\/p>\n \u201cTherefore, we are working with our friends in the German government to establish a circular immigration model that allows skilled Syrians to contribute to the reconstruction of their motherland without giving up their stability and the lives they built here, for those who wish to stay,\u201d al-Sharaa said.<\/p>\n The Syrian leader also attended a German-Syrian economic roundtable in Berlin as he sought support for his country\u2019s revival.<\/p>\n \u201cYou can count on Germany\u2019s support on the way to a good future,\u201d Merz told al-Sharaa. \u201cSuccess is more important than ever in view of the ongoing war in Iran in this region.\u201d<\/p>\n ___<\/p>\n Abby Sewell in Beirut contributed to this report.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BERLIN (AP) \u2014 German Chancellor Friedrich Merz raised the prospect of many of the Syrians who came to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":43077,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[2371,1828,887,1120,197,537,18179,1680,18180,81,95,1595,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-43076","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-syria","8":"tag-2024-2026-mideast-wars","9":"tag-ahmad-al-sharaa","10":"tag-bashar-assad","11":"tag-friedrich-merz","12":"tag-general-news","13":"tag-germany","14":"tag-germany-government","15":"tag-immigration","16":"tag-international-incidents","17":"tag-politics","18":"tag-syria","19":"tag-syria-government","20":"tag-world-news"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@iran\/116318652473952812","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43076","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43076"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43076\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/43077"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43076"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43076"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43076"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}