Chancellor Friedrich Merz said on Monday that Germany plans to deport Syrian citizens with criminal records and has invited Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa to Berlin for talks on the issue.
"We will, of course, continue to deport criminals to Syria. That is the plan. We will now implement this in a very concrete manner," Merz told reporters.
He added that Germany also wants to contribute to Syria’s stability and intends to discuss with al-Sharaa "how we can solve this together".
Merz’s stance marks a sharp departure from the policy of his predecessor, Angela Merkel, whose government adopted an open-door approach a decade ago, allowing around one million refugees, many of them Syrians, to enter Germany during the conflict.
Since then, the rise of the far right has pushed Merz’s conservative CDU party to take a tougher position on migration and border security, with an emphasis on speeding up deportations.
"I will say it again: the civil war in Syria is over. There are now no longer any grounds for asylum in Germany," Merz said.
President al-Sharaa, who took power from Bashar al-Assad in December 2024, has embarked on several diplomatic visits aimed at restoring Syria’s international relations after years of isolation. He is expected to visit Washington in early November.
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Six people have died after a two-storey residential building in a tourist area of central Athens collapsed, the Greek fire brigade said on Saturday (26 September), following an explosion that the mayor said was likely linked to gas infrastructure.
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A decade ago, a far-right party winning a major Western European election would have caused a political shock. Today, such results are increasingly becoming part of Europe’s political landscape.
A Russian guided aerial bomb has struck an apartment building in Kharkiv, injuring 22 people, including children, according to the city’s mayor. The strike follows a day of near-continuous Russian attacks across Ukraine that killed at least five people.
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