Austria considers forcibly deporting Syrian refugees and emphasizes individual assessment for each case.

Austrian Interior Minister, Gerhard Karner, announced that the Austrian government is considering the possibility of implementing mandatory deportation operations for Syrian refugees, emphasizing the need to evaluate each case individually. This announcement came in response to a query from a parliament member during a recent session. The minister explained that the Interior Ministry is currently working on developing procedures to organize forced deportation operations in cooperation with the German side. Karner also pointed out that the number of Syrians returning to their country after the recent political changes remains limited, with only around 250 refugees out of approximately 100,000 Syrian refugees residing in Austria. He stressed the importance of evaluating each case separately due to varying levels of safety between different Syrian regions and social groups. The minister revealed that in the past two years (2023-2024), 160 Syrian refugees voluntarily left Austria under voluntary return programs. A detailed report on the security situation in Syria is expected to be issued in the coming weeks, as Vienna holds intensive consultations with Berlin on this matter. Karner was supposed to visit Syria last week with German Interior Minister, Nancy Vizer, to assess the security conditions and possibilities of refugee return, but the visit was later canceled.