Celebration in Berlin, Germany; If you want to go, I'll give you 1000 euros in pocket money and a plane ticket

Members of the Syrian community in Berlin, Germany, raised the flags of Syria and Germany on December 8 to celebrate the end of Assad's rule, after rebel fighters took control of the Syrian capital Damascus overnight and forced Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad to seek refuge in Russia. Everyone is eagerly awaiting how the country's nearly one million Syrians will be treated.

Germany's conservative politicians (CDU) have spoken out in favour of encouraging Syrian refugees to return to their homeland. Jens Spahn, deputy chairman of the CDU/CSU parliamentary group, has promised to provide anyone who wants to return to Syria with a chartered flight and 1,000 euros in pocket money when the new federal government takes office.

Germany has taken in nearly a million Syrians, Europe's largest refugee population from the war-torn country. While some of that population maintains a strong desire to return to their homeland, others have integrated and made Germany their home. Of the total, 700,000 are related. The remaining 300,000 are integrated and working here. 

Syrians were the largest group of people to apply for German citizenship in 2023. According to the Interior Ministry, there are currently 974,136 Syrian citizens living in Germany. Of these, 5,090 have been identified as eligible for asylum, 321,444 have been granted refugee status and 329,242 have been granted subsidiary protection, allowing them to remain temporarily, while tens of thousands of other cases are still pending. 

However, “the end of the Assad regime is unfortunately no guarantee of peaceful development,” German Foreign Ministry spokesman Sebastian Fischer said on Monday. Other European countries, including Germany and Austria, have temporarily suspended asylum requests from Syrian citizens.