German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser on Wednesday warned that the return of Syrian refugees could have serious consequences for Germany’s health-care sector.
“Entire areas in the health-care sector would disappear if all Syrians working here were to leave our country now,” Faeser said after a Cabinet meeting in Berlin.
“For us, it is important that we offer Syrians who are here, who have a job, who have integrated, who are free of criminal offences, whose children go to school the opportunity to stay here and be there for our economy,” said Faeser, days after the collapse of Bashar al-Assad’s regime prompted a debate in Germany on whether refugees should be encouraged to return to Syria.
The interior minister emphasized that it was too soon to make a serious assessment of the situation, even as Germany’s migration authority moved to pause asylum proceedings for more than 47,000 Syrian applicants.
Faeser’s comments were echoed by Health Minister Karl Lauterbach, who said that more than 6,000 Syrian doctors are employed in Germany and are “indispensable” to providing care.
