BERLIN (Reuters) -Chancellor Friedrich Merz has invited Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa to Germany to discuss deporting Syrian citizens with criminal records in Germany, the German leader said on Monday.
“We will, of course, continue to deport criminals to Syria. That is the plan. We will now implement this in a very concrete manner,” Merz told reporters.
Germany also wants to help stabilise the country, he said, adding that he intends to discuss with Sharaa “how we can solve this together”.
Merz’s conservative predecessor Angela Merkel oversaw a historic open-doors policy towards refugees 10 years ago, welcoming some 1 million migrants to Germany, many of them Syrians fleeing civil war.
Since then, support for the far right has surged and the conservative CDU party under Merz has pursued a far tougher line on border security and migration, pledging to speed up deportations.
“I will say it again: the civil war in Syria is over. There are now no longer any grounds for asylum in Germany,” Merz said.
Since seizing power from former President Bashar al-Assad in December 2024, Sharaa has made a series of foreign trips as his transitional government seeks to re-establish Syria’s ties with world powers that had shunned Damascus during Assad’s rule.
He is expected to visit Washington in early November.
(Reporting by Andreas Rinke; writing by Rachel More; Editing by Cynthia Osterman)
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