Syrian asylum-seekers in Switzerland can be sent home again.
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Asylum-seekers from Syria can be sent back to their country of origin. Following the suspension of asylum decisions in December 2024 in connection with the fall of the Assad regime, the Swiss State Secretariat for Migration will once again decide on applications from May 1.
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The State Secretariat for Migration (SEM) has been closely monitoring the situation in Syria since the fall of Bashar al-Assad’s government on December 8, 2024, according to a press release issued on Friday. It also carried out a fact-finding mission to Syria and Lebanon in November 2025. Based on the findings and other information obtained, the asylum practice has been updated, it said.
The SEM will again examine each asylum application on a case-by-case basis, it added. It currently assumes that there is no longer a situation of generalised violence in all regions of Syria. There are currently 850 applications pending in the first instance.
Removal to these regions can be ordered if “there are favourable circumstances and the persons concerned would not find themselves in an existentially threatening situation upon return”.
However, in view of the continuing volatile security situation and the difficult economic and humanitarian situation, the SEM assumes that these “favourable circumstances” will not yet exist for many asylum-seekers.
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At the same time, the SEM is launching a return assistance programme for people who voluntarily return to Syria. In addition to the start-up and project aid from the EU Reintegration Programme of Frontex of up to €2,600 (CHF2,400) per person, an additional Swiss amount of CHF1,000 ($1,275) per person will be paid.
According to the SEM, 60 people returned to Syria from Switzerland with return assistance in the second half of 2025.
Refugee aid: deportations unreasonable
The Swiss Refugee Council welcomed the government’s decision to resume deciding on asylum applications, but it considers deportations to Syria to be unreasonable due to war, violence and the humanitarian situation, it wrote in a reaction.
What’s more, it said, the transitional government is itself involved in human rights violations and does not appear to be in a position to protect the population from the violence of others. There are killings, torture, abductions and disappearances. Many children no longer go to school for fear of abduction.
Refugee Aid is therefore calling for “swift and generous decisions” after 16 months of suspension.
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Adapted from German by AI/ts
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