Germany's Wadephul backs Merz over call for Syrians to return home

German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul has backed Chancellor Friedrich Merz over his statement that 80% of the more than 900,000 Syrians in the country should return to their homeland within three years.

The return of Syrians is "of course the aim of the federal government," Wadephul said on the sidelines of a visit to Kiev on Tuesday.

Merz's remark on Monday came during a visit by Syria's interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa to Germany, which was one of the main destinations for Syrian refugees fleeing the country's devastating civil war under former dictator Bashar al-Assad.

The chancellor said that Syrians are needed to join reconstruction efforts in their home country, while stressing that those "who wish to remain in Germany and are well integrated will be able to stay in Germany."

"Over the longer term of the next three years - that was the wish of al-Sharaa - 80% of the Syrians currently in Germany should return to their homeland," Merz said, according to a transcript distributed by the Federal Press Office after the press conference.

The comments have drawn criticism in Germany from across the political spectrum, but Wadephul said in Kiev that the government was fundamentally determined to consistently deport Syrians who had forfeited their right to remain in the country.

The focus of the meeting between Merz and al-Sharaa was "to work towards making Syria a country where people can live safely and have a future, including economically," he argued.

Wadephul previously raised eyebrows among his conservative colleagues in the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) last October when he cast doubt on whether Syrians could return home to their devastated country after a visit to a village near Damascus.

"People can really hardly live here with any dignity," he said. A week later, he is reported to have said at a party meeting that Syria looked worse than Germany did in 1945 at the end of World War II. This too drew massive disapproval.

The foreign minister's comments on Tuesday came amid widespread condemnation of Merz's remarks.

"The message conveyed by such figures is problematic in several respects," CDU foreign policy spokesman Roderich Kiesewetter told the Handelsblatt newspaper.

He argued that it was politically unwise to raise high expectations that far-right populist parties could then exploit.

The comments were echoed by Anke Rehlinger, the Social Democrat (SPD) premier of the western state of Saarland.

"It is not a wise move on the part of the chancellor to put forward specific figures within specific timeframes, as this raises expectations that he may not be able to meet," Rehlinger told the Funke media group.

Syrians play a critical role in the German economy, added Rehlinger, whose SPD is in a coalition with Merz's CDU at the national level.

"Many Syrians are now our fellow citizens, because they have integrated into society here, work in sectors facing labour shortages, care for the elderly or drive buses, and it is not uncommon for them to have even become German citizens," she added.

Meanwhile, lawmaker Luise Amtsberg from the opposition Greens described Merz's remarks as "shameful."

"He is unsettling hundreds of thousands of German-Syrians, who are left with the impression that they will have to leave Germany again in the coming years," Amtsberg told the Rheinische Post newspaper.

Daniel Thym, a migration researcher based in Konstanz, said the target of around 80% of Syrians living in Germany returning home is completely unrealistic.

"Such high return figures are likely to prove illusory and unachievable even through voluntary departure," he told the Handelsblatt.

So far, only a few thousand Syrians have returned voluntarily to their homeland since al-Assad's downfall in late 2024.

It remains unclear why this should change, Thym said. The same applies to forced deportations.

The German Hospital Association pointed out that Syrian doctors make up the largest group of foreign doctors in Germany.

"They therefore play a significant role in providing health care," official Henriette Neumeyer told Redaktionsnetzwerk Deutschland (RND).

By the end of 2024, 5,745 Syrian doctors were working in German hospitals, she said. Syrian nursing staff are also of the utmost importance. The German Hospital Association estimates that there are more than 2,000 Syrian nurses in German hospitals.