By Amina Ismail and Layli Foroudi
AMSTERDAM, April 22 (Reuters) - Armed men burst into the apartment where student Mohamad lived with his Alawite family in the Syrian city of Jableh on March 7 last year and forced the 20-year-old and his father to lie face down as they pleaded for their lives.
The gunmen eventually left with cash and some belongings but the family moved out, Mohamad said, terrified by the ordeal and the wave of killings targeting fellow Alawites after the fall of dictator Bashar al-Assad,
who hails from the same minority sect.
After nine months house hopping to avoid being targeted again, Mohamad flew to Amsterdam on a tourist visa with his uncle Salman. They asked for asylum on arrival but their claim was rejected within weeks as they were not deemed personally at risk, documents seen by Reuters showed.
The two men are among thousands of Syrians whose asylum claims have been rejected at a time when European governments are toughening their stance on applications from Syria, now Assad has gone and the country's 14-year civil war is over.
However, President Ahmed al-Sharaa's efforts to bring the fractured nation under central rule have been complicated by deadly violence against Alawites, Druze and Kurds, fuelling suspicion of his rule among minority communities, despite promises to protect them.
"Do we have to arrive dead or missing a limb for them to take our claim seriously?" Mohamad said, asking for only his surname to be used for fear of reprisals against relatives.
According to the European Union Asylum Agency (EUAA), 27,687 out of 38,407 Syrian asylum decisions in 2025 were negative. It said this was often due to procedural reasons such as applicants having previously sought asylum in another EU country, or because they withdrew their applications.
That's a 28% success rate compared with 90% in 2024.
The success rate at first instance across the EU, Norway and Switzerland for all nationalities fell to 29% in 2025 from 42%, mainly driven by a significant decrease in the number of decisions on Syrian applications.
In February, 19% of Syrian applications were successful.
While Reuters was unable to determine how many of the failed claims were from minorities, it has documented 18 rejections of individuals or families from Syrian groups that have faced persecution since the new government took power.
The tally is based on interviews with asylum seekers, lawyers and a review of decision files and claims in Britain, France, Germany and the Netherlands by Syrians from Alawite, Druze, Kurdish, Christian and Shia minorities.
Reuters also documented an Alawite in the Netherlands and a Christian in France who were granted protection.
Syria's Ministry of Information said the government was firmly committed to protecting all Syrian communities and did not condone attacks against civilians.
The Dutch Immigration and Naturalisation Service (IND) declined to comment on individual cases. A spokesperson said 7% of Syrian asylum seekers were granted protection in 2025.
HIGHLY CHALLENGING SITUATION
Over the past year, several European countries have said asylum is no longer automatically justified for Syrians and some, such as Germany, plan to start repatriations.
Before Assad's fall in December 2024, Syrians were generally eligible for asylum because levels of violence were considered high and military service was obligatory.
EU guidance for Syrian claims released in December states that Alawites, Druze and Kurds face persecution, though cases must be assessed individually to determine the level of risk.
"The problem is how (the guidance) is being used. Some governments appear to be translating 'changed circumstances' into a presumption of safety that the evidence does not support – especially for minority groups," said Nando Sigona, professor of International Migration and Forced Displacement at the University of Birmingham.
"The speed of the shift suggests this is not just a legal reassessment, but part of a broader move toward a more restrictive reading of refugee protection across Europe," he said, adding that the EU's guidance on Syria stressed the continued instability.
Anti-immigration rhetoric has surged since over a million people, mainly Syrians, arrived in Europe in 2015. That has given right-wing nationalist parties a boost, pushing governments to adopt increasingly restrictive migration policies focused on deterrence and returns.
Ulysse Ellian, a lawmaker with the right-wing VVD party in the Dutch coalition government, said it was now possible for Syrians from certain minority groups to return safely.
"To create space in the asylum system again, and to reduce the need for emergency shelters in the Netherlands, it is therefore crucial that Syrians return," he told Reuters.
Rights organisations and academics warn that the failure of so many asylum claims leaves Syrians - most of whom fled before Assad's fall and have built lives in Europe – in legal limbo.
European Commissioner Magnus Brunner told Reuters the situation in Syria remained "highly challenging" and all asylum applications were individually assessed. "These decisions are not arbitrary. They are based on case-by-case evaluations."
CLAIMS FROZEN
The latest Dutch asylum policy on Syria, which takes precedence over EUAA guidance, says Alawite and LGBTQ+ minorities are at risk. But even those groups are increasingly being rejected, said Claire Mayne, the Mohamad family's lawyer.
"We see authorities trying to find enough reasons to reject people."
In the cases documented by Reuters, the rejections mostly cited a lack of proof or details about the person's situation to suggest they would personally be at risk, said accounts were too general or inconsistent, or that applicants were from a region unaffected by violence targeting their minority group.
Rana Izouli, a Kurd, fled fighting in northeastern Syria in 2023 with her now 11-year-old daughter and made it to Germany, where she applied for asylum in April 2024.
Germany's Federal Office for Migration and Refugees (BAMF) rejected her claim in December saying there were insufficient reports about how the new government treated Kurdish men and women, and that her region was still run by Kurds.
While minorities were granted asylum at higher rates than Syrians overall in Germany last year, most were rejected. The success rate for Alawites was 20%, Druze 9.1% and Kurds 11.8%.
Germany's interior ministry did not comment on rejection rates. It said BAMF had resumed interviewing Syrians seeking asylum. Britain's Home Office said it had resumed processing Syrian applications with decisions made on a case-by-case basis. The interior ministries in France and the Netherlands did not respond to requests for comment.
A spokesperson for French asylum agency OFPRA said about 85% of Syrian applicants were granted protection in 2025.
Emad Obeid, an illustrator from Sweida, was one of thousands of Syrians whose claims were frozen as countries reassessed the situation in Syria after Assad's fall.
An anti-Assad activist from the Druze sect, Obeid left Syria in 2012. He arrived in the Netherlands in 2023 and claimed asylum in February 2024. After his claim was frozen, his maternal cousins were killed during clashes between Druze and Bedouin fighters in July last year, he said.
"I feel total disappointment and angry, because I gave my life for what I thought was revolution and now that this revolution won, they destroyed my city and killed my family and friends," he said.
Obeid, 48, said his wife and two children still in Sweida don't leave the house after 6 p.m. and that his 18-year-old son cannot go to university for fear of discrimination.
The IND wrote in its decision to freeze his claim that Druze were not seen as a risk group, unlike Alawites, and Obeid had not shown he would be at risk were he to return. It declined further comment on his case.
Syria's Ministry of Information rejected claims of sectarian discrimination, including in education. It said violations by state-affiliated individuals did occur in Sweida, in a context of long-standing local tension and external interference.
WE SURVIVED A MASSACRE
Fionnuala Ni Aolain, commissioner on a U.N. inquiry on Syria, said there had been progress on human rights reform under President Sharaa but there was still tension between sections of society - and this should be considered when assessing asylum claims.
"There's still significant insecurity and the eruption of violence last year, the coastal violence, Sweida, the northeast - all of this is indicative of some structural questions, like does the state control all of its forces and will it hold commanders accountable?" she said.
Syria's Ministry of Information said the government was working to bring all forces under unified control and officers responsible for violations were held accountable.
Since the attacks on Alawites last year, the Mohamad family's lives have turned upside down. His father, a doctor, can no longer work, and his 18-year-old sister has stopped going to school, fearful of being targeted, Mohamad said.
Salman's wife has quit her job and switched city out of fear of being kidnapped and to care for her nine-year-old daughter, who has been having panic attacks since the violence.
"We literally survived a massacre," she said, recounting how she put her children to bed and made up stories to console them, convinced death was imminent.
As Mohamad and Salman await an appeal against their asylum rejection, Mohamad has taken up boxing and both volunteer in Amsterdam, cooking and distributing food to homeless people. Salman said he was hopeful a judge would reconsider their case.
"The danger was too close. I left behind the most precious things in my life – my wife and children. Returning to Syria would be like committing suicide," the soft-spoken man said, lowering his gaze as tears slid down his cheeks.
"I just dream of being reunited with my family again."
(Reporting by Amina Ismail in Brussels and Amsterdam and Layli Foroudi in Paris; Additional reporting by Maya Gebeily in Beirut, James Mackenzie in Berlin and Alexander Chituc in Brussels; Editing by David Clarke)
