Greece Reviews 1,200 Syrian Asylum Cases Following End of Civil War

Greek authorities reopened the asylum cases of 1,200 Syrians in February after the Syrian civil war ended in December 2024. The move affects recipients such as Bashir, a Syrian Muslim granted asylum in 2015 who has lived in Greece since 2014, married there, and had a son three months ago.

Two months before 1 June 2026, officials gave Bashir a notice requiring him to restate his reasons for seeking protection and explain why he should not return to Syria.

Angeliki Theodoropoulou, his lawyer, said only men from Syria and Afghanistan are currently receiving such notices. Greece revoked the asylum of almost 200 people last year, compared with 400 revocations across the preceding decade. Dozens more cases remain under review this year.

Migration Minister Thanos Plevris announced in February that he had ordered the reopening of any asylum cases that could be revoked. ” Plevris added that Greece prefers non-Muslim migrant workers and is in talks with Georgia, the Philippines, Armenia, and India. ” Under the policy, rejected applicants may be fitted with ankle monitors and given two weeks to leave voluntarily.

Those who do not face a 5,000-euro fine and two to five years’ confinement in closed camps. In February the governing New Democracy party passed a law under which any aid organisation whose worker is charged with helping smuggle asylum seekers can be removed from the ministry registry, losing funding and camp access.

Greece suspended asylum applications for mainly Muslim arrivals from Libya for three months last year.

3 million, including more than 137,000 recipients of asylum or international protection. The European Union’s Asylum and Migration Pact is scheduled to enter into force next month. Kristin Fabbe, chair in Business and Comparative Politics at the European University Institute, told a Delphi Economic Forum event that Europe has not yet figured out how to conduct returns at scale.

More than a million asylum seekers crossed Greek borders in 2015. The Taliban took control of Afghanistan in August 2021, a development also cited by Greek authorities reviewing protection claims.