Syrian refugees euphorically celebrating the fall of Bashar al-Assad's regime on Sunday, December 8, woke up the next day in a grimmer mood. In several European countries, enthusiasm quickly gave way to a political and legal debate on the advisability of sending them back to their country of origin.

On Monday, December 9, France, Germany, Norway, Denmark, the Netherlands, Belgium, Sweden and Greece announced that they were suspending the examination of asylum applications from Syria. The United Kingdom and Switzerland followed suit later that day. For its part, Austria even went so far as to announce that it was preparing a "repatriation and deportation program" for Syrians who had already been granted asylum. Within the European Union, such legislation is a matter for individual countries.

"We are working on a suspension of current asylum files coming from Syria," said the French Interior Ministry. Asylum applications are processed by the French Office for the Protection of Refugees and Stateless Persons (OFPRA), which is not under the ministry's authority. "We're very attentively following the situation in Syria, which is changing rapidly, and this may lead us to postpone certain decisions," explained OFPRA director Julien Boucher. "If the fears of persecution cited by applicants are linked to the al-Assad regime, we'll need to take a step back to adapt our decision-making practices."

Around 700 Syrian asylum applications are currently being examined and some 45,000 Syrian nationals are receiving protection in France, which has been a relatively unpopular destination for Syrians since the start of the war, in 2011. Germany is home to nearly 1 million Syrians and, during the 2015-2016 migration wave, distinguished itself by the generosity of its asylum policy. But on Monday morning, Berlin announced its intention to freeze the examination of pending asylum applications "until the situation is clearer." It has also considered revoking a protection status that had already been granted to some people, depending on developments on the ground – some 47,270 applications would be affected by such a move. The ministry nevertheless stressed that the "confused" situation in Syria made "speculation" about returning refugees to Syria "unprofessional."

"The security situation in Syria needs to be re-evaluated so that deportations can be resumed," said Austria's conservative chancellor, Karl Nehammer, on Sunday evening. Since 2015, over 95,000 Syrians have settled in Austria. On Monday, Vienna announced the suspension of 12,000 current asylum applications by Syrian citizens. Statements with the same tone were made in Sweden and Copenhagen, as well as in Greece, where many Syrian refugees have passed through. The Greek government spokesman expressed the hope that, in time, "the refugees will be able to return back to their homes in total safety." More than 15,000 Syrian people have residence permits in Greece.

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