Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa will hold talks with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz in Berlin on Tuesday, as Germany seeks to step up deportations of Syrians.
A German government spokesman says Berlin has an “interest in deepening and finding a new start with the new Syrian government.”
Among topics on the agenda will be “the return of Syrians to their home country,” he confirms.
Roughly one million Syrians fled to Germany in recent years, many of them arriving in 2015-16 to escape the civil war.
Merz, who fears being outflanked by the far-right AfD party on immigration, has previously insisted that there is “no longer any reason” for Syrians who fled the war to seek asylum in Germany.
In December, Germany carried out its first deportation of a Syrian since the civil war erupted in 2011, flying a man convicted of crimes to Damascus.
But rights groups have criticized such efforts, citing continued instability in Syria and evidence of rights abuses.
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