BERLIN: Thousands of Syrian doctors work in Germany, and the fall of Bashar Assad is raising concern over the potential consequences for the health sector if many of them were to return home.
Germany became a leading destination for Syrian refugees over the past decade, and some politicians were quick to start talking about encouraging the return of at least some after rebels took Damascus earlier this month. Others noted that the exiles include many well-qualified people and said their departure would hurt Germany — particularly that of doctors and other medical staff.
“Whole areas in the health sector would fall away if all the Syrians who work here now were to leave our country,” Interior Minister Nancy Faeser said last week. “For us it is important that we make the offer to the Syrians who are here, who have a job, who have integrated, who are crime-free, whose children go to school, to stay here and be there for our economy.”
Syrians have become a factor in a health sector that struggles to fill jobs, part of a wider problem Germany has with an aging population and a shortage of skilled labor.
The head of the German Hospital Federation, Gerald Gass, says Syrians now make up the largest single group of foreign doctors, accounting for 2 percent to 3 percent.
An estimated 5,000 Syrian doctors work in hospitals alone. Health Minister Karl Lauterbach, who puts the total number of Syrian doctors at over 6,000, says they are “indispensable” to health care.
Gass said the picture hospital operators are getting from Syrian doctors so far is “very varied.” Some — particularly those with many relatives still in Syria — are considering a quick return if the situation proves stable, while others feel at ease and well-integrated in Germany and want to stay. But “no looming mass movement toward Syria is recognizable” at present.
“It’s certainly not the case that patient care would collapse in Germany if all Syrian doctors returned now,” Gass said. “But of course we have the situation that these people often work in smaller groups at individual sites” — whose quick departure could force temporary local closures.
“We are well advised to treat these people respectfully,” Gass said. “And yes, hospital owners are giving thought to how they could fill these jobs.”
Many Syrian doctors have made Germany their home
Dr. Hiba Alnayef, an assistant pediatric doctor at a hospital in Nauen, just outside Berlin, said she has been asked in the last 10 days, “what if the Syrians all go back now?”
“I don’t know — some want to, but it’s very difficult and uncertain,” said Aleppo-born Alnayef, who has spent much of her life outside Syria and came to Germany from Spain in 2016. She said it’s something she thinks about, “but I have a homeland here too now.”
She said she and other Syrian doctors and pharmacists would like to build cooperation between Germany and Syria.
“The Germans need specialists, Syria needs support ... renovation, everything is destroyed now,” she said. “I think we can work well together to help both societies.”
Alnayef said the German health system would have “a big problem” if only part of its Syrian doctors decided to leave — “we are understaffed, we are burned out, we are doing the work of several doctors.” She said Germany has offered “a safe harbor,” but that discrimination and racism have been issues and integration is a challenge.
Dr. Ayham Darouich, 40, who came from Aleppo to Germany to study medicine in 2007 and has had his own general practice in Berlin since 2021, said that “as far as I have heard, none of my circle of friends wants to go back.”
“They have their family or their practices here, they have their society here,” Darouich said. German concerns that many might return are “a bit exaggerated, or unjustified.”
But he said Germany needs to do more to persuade medical professionals it trains to stay in the country, and that it could also do more to make itself attractive to foreigners needed to fill the gaps.
“We see that the nurses and medical professionals in hospitals earn relatively little in comparison with the US or Switzerland,” Darouich said, and poorly regulated working hours and understaffed hospitals are among factors that “drive people away.”
Germany faces uncertainty as Syrian doctors weigh returning home amid Assad’s fall
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Germany faces uncertainty as Syrian doctors weigh returning home amid Assad’s fall
- Syrians have become a factor in a health sector that struggles to fill jobs, part of a wider problem Germany has with an aging population and a shortage of skilled labor
German justice minister condemns attacks on judges after asylum ruling
- Hubig, from the Social Democrat party, said in the joint statement that attacks on judges’ independence “strike at the basic values of our constitution”
BERLIN: German Justice Minister Stefanie Hubig has condemned “alarming” attacks on judges who earlier this week delivered a ruling challenging a key plank of the government’s immigration crackdown.
Hubig said in a statement together with the justice ministers of Germany’s federal states that “we condemn such attacks on the judicial system and on judges’ independence.”
The Berlin judges’ association said on Wednesday that two of its members had been “defamed and threatened” after handing down their decision on Monday.
In that ruling, the judges found that the pushback of three Somali asylum seekers to Poland on May 9 had been illegal.
Hubig, from the Social Democrat party, said in the joint statement that attacks on judges’ independence “strike at the basic values of our constitution.”
“It is a key duty of free courts to determine whether the law is being respected,” the statement read.
Straight after entering office early last month, the government under conservative Chancellor Friedrich Merz introduced a policy of refusing undocumented migrants — including almost all asylum seekers — entry at Germany’s borders.
The court said that the three Somalis should not have been sent back to Poland before it had been determined which state was responsible for processing their claim under the EU’s so-called “Dublin” system.
Nevertheless, Merz said that the government would continue the policy, a central part of his promised crackdown on immigration.
He and Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt, both from the conservative CDU/CSU alliance, point to the fact that the judgment technically only applied to the three
Somalis and said the government can successfully defend the policy in any further court action.
Merz insists that a tougher immigration policy is essential to halt the growth of the far-right Alternative for Germany, which achieved a record score of over 20 percent in February’s general election.
However, some in the center-left SPD, the junior partner in Merz’s coalition, have expressed unease at the pushbacks and doubts over their legality.
ICC gives victims of the gravest crimes a voice, EU leader says
- Antonio Costa, president of the European Council, which represents national governments of the 27 member states, called the court “a cornerstone of international justice” and said its independence and integrity must be protected
BRUSSELS: The EU has given its backing to the International Criminal Court after Washington imposed sanctions on four ICC judges, and EU member Slovenia said it would push Brussels to use its power to ensure the US sanctions could not be enforced in Europe.
“The ICC holds perpetrators of the world’s gravest crimes to account and gives victims a voice. It must be free to act without pressure,” European Commission President Ursula Von der Leyen said on the social media platform X.
Antonio Costa, president of the European Council, which represents national governments of the 27 member states, called the court “a cornerstone of international justice” and said its independence and integrity must be protected.
The International Criminal Court must be free to act without pressure.
Ursula Von der Leyen, European Commission president
The US imposed sanctions on four judges at the ICC in retaliation for the war tribunal’s issuance of an arrest warrant for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and a past decision to open a case into alleged war crimes by US troops in Afghanistan.
The initial US order names Solomy Balungi Bossa of Uganda, Luz del Carmen Ibanez Carranza of Peru, Reine Adelaide Sophie Alapini Gansou of Benin, and Beti Hohler of Slovenia.
The US sanctions mean the judges are now on a list of specially designated sanctioned individuals.
Any US assets they have will be blocked, and they are put on an automated screening service used by not only American banks but many banks worldwide, making it very difficult for sanctioned persons to hold or open bank accounts or transfer money.
The initial order announcing sanctions on the ICC also said that US citizens who provide services for the benefit of sanctioned individuals could face civil and criminal penalties.
Slovenia urged the EU to use its blocking statute, which lets the EU ban European companies from complying with US sanctions that Brussels deems unlawful.
“Due to the inclusion of a citizen of an EU member state on the sanctions list, Slovenia will propose the immediate activation of the blocking act,” Slovenia’s Foreign Ministry said in a post on the social media site X.
ICC president Judge Tomoko Akane had urged the EU already in March this year to bring the ICC into the scope of the blocking statute.
The new sanctions have been imposed at a difficult time for the ICC, which is already reeling from earlier US sanctions against its chief prosecutor, Karim Khan, who last month stepped aside temporarily amid a UN investigation into alleged sexual misconduct.
The court’s governing body, representing 125 member states, condemned the US government’s decision to retaliate against judges.
“These ... are regrettable attempts to impede the court and its personnel in the exercise of their independent judicial functions,” the Presidency of the Assembly of States Parties said.
‘Return to your country’ Kabul tells Afghans rebuffed by Washington
- US President Trump this week announced travel ban targeting 12 countries, including Afghanistan
- Afghan PM assures nationals of protection even if they worked with US-led forces against Taliban
KABUL: The Taliban government on Saturday urged Afghans hoping to emigrate to the United States to instead return to Afghanistan, after Washington tightened entry conditions.
US President Donald Trump this week announced a travel ban targeting 12 countries, including Afghanistan, which his proclamation said lacked “competent” central authorities for processing passports and vetting.
Commenting on the ban on Saturday, Prime Minister Hassan Akhund urged Afghans to return to their country, saying they would be protected even if they worked with US-led forces in the two-decade fight against the Taliban insurgency.
“For those who are worried that America has closed its doors to Afghans... I want to tell them, ‘Return to your country, even if you have served the Americans for 20 or 30 years for their ends, and ruined the Islamic system’,” he said in a speech marking the Eid Al-Adha holiday, broadcast by state media.
“You will not face abuse or trouble,” he said, making reassurances that the Taliban Supreme Leader Hibatullah Akhundzada had “granted amnesty for all.”
After surging to power in 2021, Taliban authorities announced a general amnesty for Afghans who worked with the Western-backed forces and government. However, the United Nations has recorded reports of extrajudicial killings, detentions and abuses.
In the past four years, the Taliban government has imposed a strict view of Islamic law and restrictions on women which the UN says amount to “gender apartheid.”
Afghans fled in droves to neighboring countries during decades of conflict, but the chaotic withdrawal of US-led troops saw a new wave clamoring to escape Taliban government curbs and fears of reprisal for working with Washington.
The United States has not had a working embassy in Afghanistan since 2021 and Afghans must apply for visas in third countries, principally Pakistan which has recently ramped up campaigns to expel Afghans.
Since Trump returned to the White House in January, Afghans have gradually seen their chances of migrating to the United States or staying there shrink.
Trump administration orders have disrupted refugee pathways and revoked legal protections temporarily shielding Afghans from deportation starting in July.
France’s president will visit Greenland in a show of EU unity, Danish leader says
- Frederiksen and the French leader said they will meet in the semiautonomous Danish territory on June 15
- Frederiksen acknowledged the “difficult foreign policy situation in recent months”
COPENHAGEN: French President Emmanuel Macron will travel to Greenland next weekend, the Danish prime minister’s office said Saturday — a visit by a high-profile European Union leader in the wake of US expressions of interest in taking over the mineral-rich Arctic island.
Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen and the French leader said they will meet in the semiautonomous Danish territory on June 15, hosted by Greenland’s new prime minister, Jens-Frederik Nielsen.
The visit by Macron, whose nuclear-armed country has one of the EU’s strongest militaries, comes as US President Donald Trump hasn’t ruled out using force to carry out his desire for the resource-rich and strategically located island to become part of the United States.
While the issue of US interest in Greenland has drifted from the headlines in recent weeks, Nielsen said in late April that such comments by US leaders have been disrespectful and that Greenland will never be “a piece of property” that anyone can buy.
In the statement Saturday, Frederiksen acknowledged the “difficult foreign policy situation in recent months” but praised “great international support” for Greenland and Denmark.
“President Macron’s upcoming visit to Greenland is yet another concrete testament to European unity,” she said, alluding to the membership of France and Denmark in the 27-member-country EU.
The three leaders were expected to discuss security in the North Atlantic and the Arctic, as well as issues of economic development, climate change and energy during the visit, her office said.
Wagner Group leaving Mali after heavy losses but Russia’s Africa Corps to remain
Mali, along with neighbors Burkina Faso and Niger, has for more than a decade battled an insurgency fought by armed groups
DAKAR: The Russia-backed Wagner Group said Friday it is leaving Mali after more than three and a half years of fighting Islamic extremists and insurgents in the country.
Despite Wagner’s announcement, Russia will continue to have a mercenary presence in the West African country. The Africa Corps, Russia’s state-controlled paramilitary force, said on its Telegram channel Friday that Wagner’s departure would not introduce any changes and the Russian contingent will remain in Mali.
“Mission accomplished. Private Military Company Wagner returns home,” the group announced via its channel on the messaging app Telegram. It said it had brought all regional capitals under control of the Malian army, pushed out armed militants and killed their commanders.
Mali, along with neighbors Burkina Faso and Niger, has for more than a decade battled an insurgency fought by armed groups, including some allied with Al-Qaeda and the Daesh group.
As Western influence in the region has waned, Russia has sought to step into the vacuum, sweeping in with offers of assistance. Moscow initially expanded its military cooperation with African nations by using the Wagner Group of mercenaries. But since the group’s leader, Yevgeny Prigozhin, was killed in a plane crash in 2023, after mounting a brief armed rebellion in Russia that challenged the rule of President Vladimir Putin, Moscow has been developing the Africa Corps as a rival force to Wagner.
Africa Corps is under direct command of the Russian defense ministry.
According to US officials, there are around 2,000 mercenaries in Mali. It is unclear how many are with Wagner and how many are part of the Africa Corps.
Beverly Ochieng, a security analyst specializing in the Sahel for Control Risks consultancy, said the Russian defense ministry had been negotiating with Mali to take on more Africa Corps fighters and for Wagner mercenaries to join Russia’s state-controlled paramilitary force.
“Since the death of Prigozhin, Russia has had this whole plan to then make the Wagner Group fall under the command of the Ministry of Defense. One of the steps they made was to revamp or introduce the Africa Corps, which is the way in which the Russian paramilitaries would retain a presence in areas where the Wagner group has been operating,” Ochieng said.
Wagner has been present in Mali since late 2021 following a military coup, replacing French troops and international peacekeepers to help fight the militants. But the Malian army and Russian mercenaries struggled to curb violence in the country and have both been accused of targeting civilians.
Last month, United Nations experts urged Malian authorities to investigate reports of alleged summary executions and forced disappearances by Wagner mercenaries and the army.
In December, Human Rights Watch accused Malian armed forces and the Wagner Group of deliberately killing at least 32 civilians over an 8-month span.
The announcement of Wagner’s withdrawal comes as the Malian army and the Russian mercenaries suffered heavy losses during attacks by the Al-Qaeda linked group JNIM in recent weeks.
Last week, JNIM fighters killed dozens of soldiers in an attack on a military base in central Mali.
Rida Lyammouri, a Sahel expert at the Morocco-based Policy Center for the New South, said the major losses might have caused the possible end of Wagner’s mission.
“The lack of an official and mutual announcement from both the Malian authorities and Wagner indicate possible internal dispute which led to this sudden decision. Simultaneously, this could point to a new framework for Russian presence in the country,” he said.
Replacing Wagner with Africa Corps troops would likely shift Russia’s focus in Mali from fighting alongside the Malian army to training, said Ulf Laessing, head of the Sahel program at the Konrad Adenauer Foundation.
“Africa Corps has a lighter footprint and focuses more on training, providing equipment and doing protection services. They fight less than the ‘Rambo-type’ Wagner mercenaries,” Laessing said.
