German Interior Minister Horst Seehofer plans to put an end to the visit of Syrian refugees to their country by means of a procedure allowing him to withdraw their refugee status and deport them outside the country.
He said in a press statement today that he could not claim any Syrian refugee who goes regularly to Syria on holiday that he was persecuted, "We must deprive such a person from refugee status."
The German minister suggested deporting Syrian asylum seekers if it turned out that they returned to their country on regular private visits after fleeing him, and stressed that his country would return asylum seekers to their country if the situation permits.
The conservative politician said that if the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees was aware of the asylum seeker's travel to the country of origin, the authorities would immediately consider abolishing his refugee status and launching procedures for the withdrawal of asylum.
Such cases are usually monitored by federal police at airports and inform the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees of the names of refugees suspected of visiting their home countries from which they fled as a result of persecution.
Some 780,000 Syrians have fled to Germany in recent years following the eight-year war.