Processing of Syrian asylum claims to resume

Following a statement made by the Minister for Border Security and Asylum earlier today, the Home Office is to resume processing of Syrian protection claims and has published seven new country policy and information notes on Syria to support decision making. The new country guidance notes cover:

• Alawites and actual or perceived Assadists
• humanitarian situation
• Kurds and Kurdish areas
• military service
• religious minorities
• returnees after fall of Al-Assad regime
• security situation

The minister said that:

With this, protection claims can be processed and safe return reviews conducted in line with published policy for any Syrian nationals applying for settlement protection.

The country guidance notes withdrawn last year only covered the humanitarian situation, returnees, and the security situation and so these are some huge changes, understandable given the size of the change in Syria.

It seems likely that the Home Office will now be trying to refuse any asylum applications from Syrians where they can. Scrutiny of the new country notes to identify who is still accepted to be at risk will be necessary for those working on these cases, and where the Home Office’s evidence is not supportive of risk to certain groups, it will be sensible to carry out research to confirm whether or not that position is correct.