Germany: Over 1,000 have voluntarily returned to Syria since 2017

A line of Syrian refugees crossing the border of Hungary and Austria on their way to Germany, 6 September 2015 [Mstyslav Chernov / Wikipedia]

More than 1,000 Syrians have voluntarily returned to their home country with financial support from Germany since 2017, the German Interior Ministry told DPA news agency.

The ministry said the German Federal Office for Migration and Refugees (BAMF) paid for a total of 199 return trips in 2017, 466 in 2018 and 347 in 2019.

However, the ministry suggested that the actual number of Syrians who had voluntarily returned to Syria exceeds the official records because requests for funding for the return trips have not been submitted from all states.

The ministry noted that the German government does not currently fund voluntary return trips due to the “complex security situation” in Syria.

Some 630,000 Syrians have applied for asylum in Germany since the beginning of the civil war in 2011.

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