EU considers allowing Syrians to visit their country without losing asylum status

The Cypriot Minister of Migration Nicholas Ioannides revealed that the European Union is working on developing a framework that would allow Syrian refugees to make temporary visits to their homeland, without losing their international protection status.

In statements to reporters in the Belgian capital, Brussels, Ioannides said that “the concept of a ‘go and see’ visit would enable refugees to assess conditions in their areas of origin, while maintaining their protected status in EU countries, thus facilitating permanent voluntary return.”

He added that “we agree with the concept of ‘go and see’ visits,” noting that “however, to prevent potential abuses, we believe that these visits should be limited in terms of a specific duration and the number of visits per family.”

According to the Cyprus News newspaper, “this approach forms part of broader discussions within the European Union on creating conditions for return by supporting Syria’s recovery after the fall of the regime of President Bashar al-Assad.”

European migration officials confirmed that visits by Syrian refugees to their country “will be strictly limited in time, with restrictions on their frequency to prevent abuse of the program.”

Hanan Shamout