Law Centre calls on the Home Office to resume decision making on Syrian protection cases
In December 2024, the regime in Syria fell when the armed opposition group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) captured Damascus and dictator Bashar al Assad fled the country. The next day, the Home Office announced a ‘pause’ on immigration decisions for Syrian nationals seeking protection in the UK. Six months on, thousands of Syrians including those with significant vulnerabilities have been left in a precarious stage of immigration limbo.
The rationale for the suspension of immigration decisions has been that the Home Office is assessing the stability of the country after the fall of the Assad regime. The reality is that Syria is far from safe.
The country is currently seeing one of the largest humanitarian crises globally, with 16.5 million people in dire need of assistance. Violent sectarian conflict across the region continues to result in the death and injury of hundreds of civilians. The UK Foreign Office have advised against travelling to Syria due to ongoing conflict and unpredictable security conditions. Further, HTS, the group running the Syrian transitional government is on the UK’s list of proscribed terror organisations.
At least 6,500 asylum seekers’ claims are currently suspended across the UK. However, also affected are Syrians who have been assessed and recognised as refugees and have lived here for the past five years. This includes persons who came through the UK government’s ‘Syrian Vulnerable Persons Resettlement Scheme (VPRS)’. Syrian refugees who arrived through this scheme had a clear expectation of settlement in the UK. Yet now, the prospect of settlement has been pulled from under their feet, leaving Syrians uncertain as to their future.
Liz Griffith from the Migration Justice Project at Law Centre NI said: “The Law Centre is assisting over 30 Syrians affected by this issue who arrived in Northern Ireland five years ago through the VPRS. Almost 2,000 Syrians were settled here over five year period and have made Northern Ireland their home.”
The suspension of immigration decisions has led to stressful situations. The Home Office has not issued individuals with documentation to prove that they are here lawfully during this limbo period, causing difficulties with securing or maintaining employment, education and housing.
Further, refugees’ status is extremely precarious while they are in this interim period: if they leave the UK – for whatever reason and for whatever period – their status is lost. UTV has recently highlighted the plight of two Syrian brothers, Bahaa and Omar Bayan, living in Omagh who are currently in this situation.
Bahaa said: “When I came here to Omagh I started studying the thing I loved, I integrated well within the community. Where I see myself at home is here, I do have a future if I’m given the chance at least.”
The Law Centre calls on the UK government to resume decision making for all Syrians.
In the alternative, and at the very least, the Home Office should proceed with making decisions for long-term residents and for those who arrived through the VPRS resettlement programme. We ask the Executive Office to raise this with the UK Government.