Assad Regime Falls, Ending Syrian Civil War; Greece Reviews 1,200 Related Asylum Grants

Greek authorities reopened 1,200 Syrian asylum cases in February and are reviewing dozens more from Afghanistan this year, according to Migration Minister Thanos Plevris. The reviews target individuals whose home-country conflicts no longer meet the threshold for international protection, including the end of Syria’s civil war in December 2024 and the Taliban’s victory in Afghanistan in August 2021.

Plevris announced the reopening of revocable cases in February.

At a parliamentary committee hearing, Plevris stated: “There are countries with which we don’t have common values, and that’s mainly because of religion, let’s be clear, it’s because of hardcore Islam.” Greece is home to 3 million migrants including more than 137,000 asylum or international-protection recipients. More than a million asylum seekers crossed its borders in 2015.

Last year Greece revoked asylum for almost 200 people, compared with 400 revocations in the prior decade. In September 2025 it adopted what Plevris called “the strictest returns policy in the whole EU,” which includes imprisonment for those who refuse deportation, ankle monitors, two-week voluntary departure deadlines, and fines up to 5,000 euros plus two-to-five-year confinement for non-compliance.

The European Union’s Asylum and Migration Pact takes effect next month and requires member states to manage hard-border and returns policies.

Plevris has said the policy aims to enable returns for those whose protection status can be reassessed following the end of major conflicts. The governing New Democracy party passed a law in February under which any aid worker charged with smuggling can cause their entire organization to be removed from the ministry registry, risking loss of funding and camp access.