BERLIN
German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul has expressed serious doubts about the repatriation of Syrian citizens to their homeland, triggering a major dispute within his Christian Democratic Union (CDU) party, media reports said Monday.
Wadephul was harshly criticized by a number of CDU party officials for saying that returning Syrians to their homeland was "only possible to a very limited extent at the present time, because a great deal of infrastructure in this country has indeed been destroyed."
The foreign minister made the comments during his recent visit to Harasta, a suburb of Damascus, where he expressed shock at the level of destruction as a result of the Syrian civil war (2011-2024).
Reacting to Wadephul’s statements, Gunter Krings, deputy leader of the CDU/CSU faction, demanded the deportation of all Syrians required to leave the country.
He described Wadephul's argument that Syria is too war-ravaged as "utterly unsuitable."
"Because who is supposed to rebuild a destroyed country if not its own citizens?" Krings asked rhetorically.
Meanwhile, the CDU sister party, the Christian Social Union (CSU), has also pushed for going ahead with the mass deportations of Syrians.
CSU parliamentary faction leader Alexander Hoffmann told the BILD daily that it was "absolutely necessary and right" to develop agreements with Syria so that criminals and those who pose a threat to public safety could be deported first.
He referred explicitly to the government coalition agreement, which stipulated this goal. CSU General Secretary Martin Huber also called for a "return strategy for Syrians," given that the civil war had ended.
- Interior Ministry plans mass deportations of Syrians
In related news, Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt has reiterated his intention to deport refugees to Syria.
"The federal government agreed in the coalition agreement that deportations to Syria would be carried out, starting with criminals," an unnamed spokesperson for the Interior Ministry told the Redaktionsnetzwerk Deutschland (RND) media network.
"The Federal Ministry of the Interior is currently working on an agreement with Syria to make deportations possible," the spokesperson added.