Top EU lawmaker says Syrians should return home, with exceptions

The leader of the conservative European People's Party (EPP) in the European Parliament is advocating in principle for Syrian refugees to return to their home country.

"Those who are able to go back to Syria and help rebuild the country must leave Germany and Europe and return to Syria," Manfred Weber told the mass-circulation Bild tabloid in comments published on Sunday.

Weber said the legal situation was clear. "We provide help in emergencies, but when the war is over, you have to return to your home country," he said.

He cautioned, however, against imposing rigid deadlines. "If deportations in the first month are not possible because parts of Syria are still completely destroyed, then it might work the following month," he said. "But the principle must ultimately be implemented."

Weber also argued for exceptions for Syrians who have integrated into the labour market.

"There are many Syrians in Germany who are making an important contribution here. Do we really want to send all of them back to Syria?" he asked, noting that people with a migration background play a key role in sectors such as health care.

Weber is a senior German politician from Bavaria's Christian Social Union (CSU), the sister party of Chancellor Friedrich Merz's Christian Democratic Union (CDU).

The remarks come amid an internal dispute within the conservative bloc over returns to Syria.

Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul caused irritation in the party last week after visiting a devastated suburb of Damascus.

He cast doubt on whether large numbers of Syrian refugees would return voluntarily, saying it was "barely possible" to live there with dignity given the destruction.

Party colleagues criticized him for appearing to distance himself from the bloc's position that offenders should be deported quickly and voluntary returns encouraged.

Chancellor Friedrich Merz, leader of the CDU, later clarified the party line. "The civil war in Syria is over. There are no longer any grounds for asylum in Germany and therefore we can begin with returns," he said.

Merz's CDU has promised to step up deportations of foreign criminals and irregular migrants since taking office in May.