updated guidance for asylum applications by Syrian nationals<\/a> on Wednesday that reflects new conditions in Syria a year after the fall of former long-time leader, Bashar al-Assad.<\/p>\nThe changes may influence the result of asylum requests of some 110,000 Syrians who were still awaiting an asylum decision at the end of September.<\/p>\n
The European Union Agency for Asylum said opponents of al-Assad and military service evaders “are no longer at risk of persecution.”<\/p>\n
But the agency said other groups may be considered at risk in the post-Assad Syria, including people affiliated with the former government and members of the Alawites, Christians, and Druze ethnic-religious groups.<\/p>\n
While decisions on asylum applications are made at a national level, the agency’s guidance is used to inform the 27 EU member states, as well as Norway and Switzerland.<\/p>\n
The goal is to create greater coherence between the 29 nations granting international protection.<\/p>\n
The number of Syrians requesting asylum dropped significantly from 16,000 in October 2024, before the fall of al-Assad in December, to 3,500 in September 2025.<\/p>\n
Still, Syrians had the most number of cases awaiting a decision at first instance.<\/p>\n
Syria’s civil war, which began in March 2011, killed nearly half a million people and displaced half of the country’s pre-war population of 23 million.<\/p>\n
More than 5 million Syrians fled the country as refugees. While most sought refuge in neighbouring countries like Turkey, many also went to Europe, contributing to the continent’s 2015 refugee crisis.<\/p>\n
The asylum agency said the situation in Syria is “considered improved but volatile” since al-Assad’s fall late last year and that “indiscriminate violence continues to take place” in certain parts of the country.<\/p>\n
At-risk groups<\/p>\n
Many Syrians had high hopes after al-Assad was ousted in an offensive by insurgent groups in early December.<\/p>\n
However, sectarian killings against members of al-Assad\u2019s Alawite minority sect in Syria\u2019s coastal region and against the Druze minority in the southern province of Suwayda earlier this year has claimed hundreds of lives.<\/p>\n
Still, the agency said it now considers Damascus, the capital, to be safe.<\/p>\n
The agency also cited two other groups living in Syria who should remain eligible for refugee status: LGBTQ+ people and Palestinians in Syria who no longer receive United Nations assistance or protection.<\/p>\n
Since al-Assad’s ouster, more than 1 million people have returned to Syria and nearly 2 million internally displaced people have returned to their regions, according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.<\/p>\n
Additional sources \u2022 AP<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Published on 03\/12\/2025 – 18:55 GMT+1 The European Union issued updated guidance for asylum applications by Syrian nationals…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":610117,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5174],"tags":[2000,299,5187,1699,6658,6500,15287],"class_list":{"0":"post-610116","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-eu","8":"tag-eu","9":"tag-europe","10":"tag-european","11":"tag-european-union","12":"tag-refugees","13":"tag-syria","14":"tag-syrian-refugees"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115657255622324336","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/610116","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=610116"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/610116\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/610117"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=610116"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=610116"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=610116"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}