No member state can return a Syrian asylum seeker to their home country if they are at real risk of death or are exposed to torture, inhuman or degrading treatment, said Michael O’Flaherty, the human rights commissioner of the Strasbourg-based Council of Europe (CoE), per the Mandiner news portal.
The commissioner of the 46-member state council issued a statement on Tuesday, reading, “Due to developments in Syria and the fall of the ‘Assad regime’, several member states of the Council of Europe have suspended the processing of Syrian asylum applications and announced that they plan to return Syrians already under protection due to the changed situation. All this raises questions about whether the states concerned are acting in accordance with international refugee and human rights obligations, in particular the principle of non-refoulement.”
Due to the rapidly changing situation in Syria, careful, evidence-based decisions should be taken, O’Flaherty said, adding that the withdrawal of refugee status requires fundamental and lasting changes in the country of origin. This principle should also be respected in other forms of protection, including for beneficiaries of subsidiary protection under EU law.
“Furthermore, protection cannot be withdrawn for those for whom compelling reasons arising from past persecution make return impossible,” he said.
Any change in the protection status of Syrians should only be made after a thorough assessment of the human rights risks, he stressed, underlining that no decisions should be made based on “a general assumption that Syria is now a safe country.”
For Syrians who wish to return to their country, member states must ensure that they do so on an informed and truly voluntary basis. And if the situation in Syria forces people to again flee the country, CoE member states must guarantee genuine and effective access to asylum procedures and avoid collective refoulement, the statement clarified.
