Report: A German move to cancel the asylum of Syrian social assistance recipients

German media, including the German newspaper Südkurier, quoted Alexander Tromm, spokesman for the Christian Union parliamentary bloc for internal affairs, as saying: “The process of reviewing the protection status of young men should begin with (Syrian) men who do not have families and receive social assistance; that is, those who do not work and depend for their livelihood on the state.”

Regarding doctors and nurses, for example, they will have the possibility to “change” their residence permits to a “residence permit for the purpose of work,” according to the politician in the Christian Union, composed of the Christian Democratic Party and its Bavarian sister party, the Christian Social Party.

According to statistics from the Federal Labor Agency, the number of Syrians receiving social assistance reached about 415,000 people in May 2026.

More than 900,000 Syrians have arrived in Germany since 2011, and most of them received “subsidiary protection” (the right to asylum on humanitarian grounds), while others received the right to political asylum.

What does the official Syrian story say?

On September 30, Director of the Department of Expatriates and Refugees Affairs at the Syrian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Nahla Othman, denied the validity of what is being circulated about Germany’s intention to deport large numbers of Syrian refugees, noting that discussions are ongoing with Berlin to discuss the possibility of changing the types of residency to suit the conditions of people who have settled and integrated into society.

The Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA) quoted Nahla Othman as saying, “After the meeting we held with the German Ministry of the Interior in Berlin on September 24, we confirm that what is being circulated about the deportation of 700,000 refugees is baseless and does not reflect the reality of the procedures followed by the German authorities.” She added: “We seek, in coordination and dialogue with the German government and the relevant authorities, to explore the possibility of changing the types of residency to suit the conditions of people who have settled and integrated into society, in addition to working to provide new opportunities to look into the files of people against whom rejection decisions have been issued, in accordance with the laws and procedures in force in Germany.”

Expanding the withdrawal of the right to “humanitarian asylum” from Syrians in Germany

The number of Syrians whose humanitarian refugee status has been withdrawn has increased. According to the German government, 23.2% of a total of 8,320 review processes during the first half of this year ended in the cancellation or withdrawal of protection status. In most cases, the matter was related to withdrawing refugee status or what is called subsidiary protection. For comparison, only 3.7% of Syrian refugees lost their protection status after a similar review process in 2025, compared to 3.1% in 2024.

Revocation of protected status occurs when the conditions on which the protection was based subsequently no longer exist, and this occurs in particular when there is a fundamental change in the conditions in the country of origin. Withdrawals occur less frequently, when it later becomes clear that a person provided false information regarding his origin or reasons for fleeing during the asylum procedure.