(CLO) The Austrian government has just announced that it will provide a support payment called a "repatriation bonus" worth 1,000 euros (about 1,050 USD) for Syrian refugees returning to their homeland.
Chancellor Karl Nehammer reacted quickly to the overthrow of the Assad regime in Syria last Sunday, saying the security situation in Syria needed to be reassessed to consider the possibility of deporting Syrian refugees.
Syrians return home from the Cilvegozu border gate in Hatay, Türkiye. (Source: THX/TTXVN)
For now, forced deportations are not being carried out due to the political situation in Syria, but the Austrian government has said it will instead focus on helping refugees return voluntarily. Austria has also stopped processing asylum applications from Syrians, following a trend of more than a dozen other European countries.
Syrians are now the largest group of asylum seekers in Austria, a member of the European Union (EU). Chancellor Nehammer’s conservatives are under pressure from far-right parties, with both sides often competing over hardline immigration policies.
"Austria will support Syrians who wish to return home with a repatriation bonus of 1,000 euros. The country now needs its people to rebuild," Prime Minister Nehammer wrote on the social media platform X.
A one-way economy class ticket from Vienna to Beirut, a popular transit point for road users heading to Damascus, costs as little as 1,066.10 euros ($1,120.58) on Turkish Airlines, according to the airline’s website. That means the Austrian government’s support is not even enough to cover the cost of travel.
Hong Hanh (according to BBC, Reuters, CNN)
Source: https://www.congluan.vn/ao-cap-cho-nguoi-ti-nan-syria-1000-euro-de-hoi-huong-post325571.html
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