European countries suspend Syrian asylum decisions after Assad's fall

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00:00As we've been mentioning a number of countries including Germany, France and Austria say

00:04they'll halt asylum requests from Syrians. Vienna has gone one step further announcing

00:09plans today to deport Syrian migrants. Berlin and other governments say they are watching

00:14developments in Syria very closely. Far-right politicians are calling for their governments

00:19to follow in Austria's footsteps including in Germany. It's home to Europe's largest

00:25Syrian community. There's 1.3 million people Syrians there in Germany and of course it's

00:31all coming at a time when immigration has become a hot-button issue across the continent. Well

00:36let's speak to France 24's former correspondent Nick Holdsworth who joins us from Berlin. Nick,

00:42break down for us this move by these European countries to pause asylum requests for Syrians.

00:50Well there appears to be a wave of political opportunism taking place across Europe with

00:55Germany pausing 47,000 Syrian asylum applications. The Austrians saying they're going to deport

01:03Syrians as you've just said there. France pausing I think it's a few thousand applications. The

01:09Swedes, the Finns, the Danes, the Norwegians and the UK that Philip has just mentioned there

01:15are all pausing applications. In the meantime the UNHCR, that's the United Nations High

01:22Commission on Refugees, they've warned that this may be a little bit precipitate. They're saying

01:28that 90% of Syrians in Syria are surviving on humanitarian aid. Winter is coming up. They're

01:34advising taking it slowly and gauging how this may impact people. At the same time I've been

01:41talking to Syrian friends and colleagues here in Berlin and some of them are very keen to go

01:46back. In fact one young man I know who was taking an intensive German course sent a message to his

01:52teacher and his fellow classmates saying it's been nice knowing you. Thanks so much for all

01:58the hard work in the classroom but I'm off back to Damascus. Some of his friends have said you know

02:04that may be a little bit hasty but certainly there is a great urge amongst the Syrian diaspora to

02:10return home and help rebuild their state in a new and hopefully democratic manner. Nix Holdsworth

02:17our former correspondent there in Berlin, thank you so much for bringing us up to speed there.

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