Austria deports first Syrian since civil war, says more will follow

By Francois Murphy

VIENNA (Reuters) -Austria's conservative-led government said on Thursday it had carried out its first deportation of a Syrian back to their home country in almost 15 years, making it the first European Union country to do so since the outbreak of Syria's civil war.

The unnamed Syrian man had been convicted of an unspecified crime in November 2018, given a seven-year sentence and stripped of his refugee status, Interior Minister Gerhard Karner said, adding that he could not go into specifics.

The Syrian man's legal adviser, Ruxandra Staicu, declined to specify the nature of his conviction but said he was 32.

"A Syrian criminal was deported from Austria to Syria today, specifically to Damascus," Karner told reporters, pledging that more would follow soon.

"I believe it is an extremely important signal that Austria is pursuing a tough, strict, forceful but fair asylum policy in that those who endanger others, criminals, will be removed from the country," he added.

While EU member states including Austria and Germany have been keen to strike agreements with Syria's new Islamist-led government to enable deportations, rights groups have said it is too early to tell how the security situation will evolve and whether it is truly safe to deport people there.

Rights groups are concerned that Austria's move will create a precedent, encouraging other EU member states to deport Syrians amid rising anti-migration sentiment across the bloc.

"There is no reliable information on how the new regime will treat the returnee. In this volatile situation, it is irresponsible to conduct a deportation simply for PR reasons," said Lukas Gahleitner-Gertz, a lawyer and spokesperson for Asylum Coordination Austria, a platform of Austrian NGOs.

TOUGH STANCE

Austria's three-party ruling coalition has made a tough stance on immigration one of its hallmarks as it seeks to erode support for the far-right Freedom Party, which came first in September's parliamentary election with an even harder line on what has long been a prominent issue in national politics.

Within days of President Bashar al-Assad's fall from power in December, Austria's previous government, led by the same conservative People's Party in power now, suspended the processing of Syrians' asylum claims and said it would work towards repatriating Syrians already in the country.

Syrians are the top nationality among asylum seekers and refugees in Austria since 2015, Interior Ministry data show. Austrian law allows the authorities to revoke a refugee's status in some cases within five years of it being granted.

"There will be, and will have to be, other deportations towards Syria. These are also being prepared," Karner said, also mentioning Afghanistan, another country that many refugees and asylum seekers in Austria come from.

(Reporting by Francois MurphyAdditional reporting by Amina Ismail in Cairo Editing by Gareth Jones)