Denmark’s €27,000 Offer Fails to Convince Migrants to Return to Syria

More than half a year has passed since Denmark began offering €27,000 for every Syrian refugee who voluntarily chooses to return to their home country after it was deemed ‘safe’ with the fall of the Assad regime. However, the scheme is failing to produce results.

Since Copenhagen launched the remigration plan back in December—along with suspending asylum for any new refugees claiming to come from Syria—only 120 of them reportedly took the deal and left Denmark on their own.

That’s not even a dent in the 35,000-strong community, most of whom arrived at the beginning of the migrant crisis in 2015-2016. If all of them accepted the cash, it would cost taxpayers nearly €1 billion. But massive remigration remains a distant dream as the vast majority would rather stay in Europe.

When asked, the migrants say Syria is still unstable and deeply unsafe, contradicting a growing number of EU officials who argue that there’s now no reason to uphold their refugee status.

Austria and Germany, for instance, recently began deporting Syrian convicts as a first step, while there’s a high-level public debate going on about whether it’s possible to deport others. Around 40% of the Syrian refugees who arrived in Germany ten years ago are still unemployed and living on benefits, becoming the center of attention since the regime change in their home country.

Denmark’s left-wing government has long been proud of having one of the toughest asylum policies in Europe, which mostly focuses on deterrence against economic migration by reducing benefits and refusing to hand out permanent residence permits, producing remarkable results.

However, when it comes to voluntary remigration, not even Denmark seems to have the answer. Nonetheless, Copenhagen still hopes that the cash offer, coupled with sending development aid to Syria, will eventually do the trick. Otherwise, the government may have to begin large-scale deportations to reach its promised goal of “zero refugees,” which it wants to avoid.

“The change of power in Syria has opened up new opportunities,” said Danish Foreign Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen. “That is why we have lifted some sanctions, and our goal is to create stable conditions in Syria so that many of the Syrians who came to Europe in 2015 can return. However, we have not yet taken any concrete decision.”

Naturally, some would like the government to act sooner rather than later. Last Friday, Danish activists scaled Copenhagen’s first and largest mosque with smoke bombs and a giant banner to demand remigration and to raise awareness about the mosque’s alleged ties to terrorism and espionage on behalf of Iran.

“The problem is the number and presence of hundreds of thousands of ethnoculturally foreign people,” the protest organizers said. “The solution is to reverse demographic developments once and for all for the first time since the beginning of mass immigration.”