(Zaman Al Wasl)- The Danish Immigration Service has informed many Syrian refugees that their residency would not be renewed and better for them to accept the voluntary return to Syria, especially for people of Damascus.
The decision comes after many decisions taken by the Danish government in the past months within the so-called Financial Amendment Law.
Syrian refugees were deeply upset by these decisions.
Dr. Mustafa Naous, the director of international relations at VIA University in Denmark, told Zaman Al Wasl that the decision is just a routine procedure in accordance with the recent amendments issued within the so-called financial amendment law.
He added that Denmark recently adopted a national study of Denmark's experts and in cooperation with the Danish Refugee Support Organization, which is an unreliable study of international refugee status change.
He said that the study led to a detailed report showing in terms of the result that the situation in and around Damascus is secure and that the displaced can return to Damascus.
The move comes despite warnings by international and human rights organizations, including the United Nations, regarding the return of refugees, who said earlier that the situation in Syria is still unsafe.
Naous, the journalist in the Turkish daily Sabah, believes that the pressure exerted on the Syrians in Denmark is due to its population of only 6 million and its area that does not exceed 43,000 square kilometers.
So it’s about the fear of demographic change in the country, in addition to the obsession of fear of Arabs and Islam and other concerns of right-wing extremist parties trying to implant in the hearts of voters, but magic always turns on the magician.
The People's Party has lost 40,000 votes or more than one third of the votes of voters during the past four years.
Naous said that the decision of voluntary return will add international legitimacy to the criminal Assad regime, and consider the conflict as an internal conflict against hostile forces and not a revolution against injustice, repression and terrorism.
He expressed his belief that there is an international policy and an attempt from some countries such as Russia and Iran to pass over international law to persuade refugees to return to Syria without regard to the risk of this return.
For his part, Ibrahim al-Olabi, a journalist, told Zaman al-Wasl that this decision is part of many decisions taken by the Danish authorities under the pressure of the extreme right-wing People's Party to pressure the refugees into automatically thinking of returning home and preventing any other refugees from thinking of coming to Denmark.
He added that talking about voluntary return and material temptations in light of what we are witnessing is like we are still within the limits of procedures, which is not effective in the situation of refugees even with the refusal to renew residency.
“The only reason for the Danish government to continue making harmful decisions to the refugees is to declare international and Western normalization, especially with Assad, and this is not within the foreseeable future, unfortunately,” he said.
He pointed out that these symbolic measures, which are included in the restrictions on refugees should be understood in two contexts: the first position of the Danish government led by the Liberal Party, which does not have a majority in parliament and secured by the extreme right-wing party, and the other context is that Denmark is part of the West, which in the last two years has expressed greater acceptance of the regime's rehabilitation and normalization of relations.
“This qualification has been noted at the top of the populist agenda in Europe, whose rise in some respects is linked to Trump's rise as president, and he also stated in his campaign to support Assad in his war on ISIS” he added. “The only reason that can let the Danish government making harmful decisions to refugees is the declaration of international and Western normalization, especially with Assad” he said.
He believes that the world can’t be determined towards full normalization with the regime at the expense of the refugees and the Syrian issue, but it depends on the winds of international politics that are changing every day and led by super powers in the light of stable and changing interests."
Zaman Al Wasl
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