German politicians already speculating about whether Syrian refugees will go home following the fall of Syrian ruler Bashar al-Assad are speaking prematurely, Interior Minister Nancy Faeser said on Monday.
“The end of the brutal tyranny of the Syrian dictator Assad is a great relief for many people who have suffered torture, murder and terror,” Faeser said while visiting London.
Many Syrian refugees in Germany now finally have hope of returning home and rebuilding their country, she said.
“However, the situation in Syria is currently very unclear. For this reason, specific return options are not yet foreseeable at the moment, and it would be dubious to speculate on this in such a volatile situation,” the minister said.
Senior politicians from the centre-right opposition CDU/CSU bloc spoke out on Monday morning about possible charter flights back to Syria and cash incentives to encourage Syrian refugees to leave the country.
That speculation comes just hours after al-Assad reportedly fled the country amid a rapid offensive by a coalition of rebel groups that swept through government-held territory and captured Damascus over the weekend.
