Austria Deported Criminals to Syria

The Ministry of the Interior carried out the deportation of a Syrian criminal with ties to the terrorist militia "Islamic State" (IS) to his home country on Thursday morning. This marked the first deportation to Syria in 15 years, according to the Ministry of the Interior. Last week, it was canceled due to the closed airspace over the country following the escalation of the Middle East conflict.

Deportation of Syrian Carried Out

"Today's deportation is part of a tough and thus fair asylum policy," emphasized Interior Minister Gerhard Karner (ÖVP). The path of removing convicted criminals from the country will continue "with hard work and determination" in the case of Syria, Karner explained, expressing confidence that there will be "further deportations to the country in the foreseeable future." According to Karner, preparations for this are underway.

32-Year-Old Convicted of Terrorist Association

The 32-year-old was sentenced to seven years in prison by the Salzburg Regional Court in November 2018 for involvement with the terrorist militia "Islamic State" (IS). He acted as a kind of "media mujahid." According to the verdict, his aim was to recruit members for IS and to terrify the European civilian population through propagandistic photos, videos, films, image collages, and graphics about past or announced terrorist attacks. For marketing and recruitment measures, he used numerous platforms, including Google, Flickr, Tumblr, Facebook, Telegram, Blogspot, YouTube, Instagram, or WordPress. The man is said to have "operated" about 30 profiles on Twitter alone. Investigators secured 40,000 files on the Syrian's electronic devices.

Due to this conviction, the BFA revoked his asylum status in February 2019 and issued a return decision with an indefinite entry ban. However, the deportation was declared inadmissible due to the situation in Syria at the time.

Released from Prison at the End of 2024 and Applied for Asylum Again

Last December, the man was released from prison after serving his sentence. Since the conditions for imposing detention pending deportation were not met at that time, the Federal Office for Immigration and Asylum (BFA) ordered a daily reporting obligation at a police station as a milder measure. The Syrian complied with this. In November 2024 - and thus before his release from prison - he filed a second application for international protection. The BFA rejected this asylum application in April 2025 and again issued a return decision with an indefinite entry ban. The deportation to Syria was declared admissible due to the changed situation following the fall of the Assad regime. The country-specific decision basis for this was provided by the Country Guidance of the European Union Agency for Asylum (EUAA).

The Syrian was temporarily taken into pre-trial detention again after another criminal offense in March 2025 and was sentenced to a two-month prison term in May according to the BFA. After serving this sentence, he was taken into detention pending deportation and his deportation was prepared.

The man has now been deported to the Syrian capital Damascus via a scheduled flight through Istanbul, said Karner at Vienna Airport. For the Minister of the Interior, the journey continues to Sofia, and on Friday he will visit the Bulgarian-Turkish EU external border.

Karner Was in Syria

It had been apparent for some time that Austria wanted to take deportations seriously. Together with his then German counterpart Nancy Faeser, Karner visited Syria at the end of April and sought talks with the new rulers there, agreeing on "concrete implementation steps" regarding return and deportations, as Karner explained afterwards.

The cooperation only became possible through the personal meeting with the Syrian Minister of the Interior, Karner noted. With the new government in Syria, which was formed after the fall of the former ruler Bashar al-Assad, there can be no agreement yet.

Syria Deportations Unusual

Deportations from the EU to Syria are currently absolutely unusual. Although a Eurostat statistic suggests that several dozen people were transferred from countries like Romania and Hungary to the country in recent months, it is unclear whether these deportations actually took place. According to the Ministry of the Interior, Austria is the first European country that has officially been able to deport a Syrian criminal directly to Syria in recent years. Since the fall of the Assad regime, 350 Syrians have voluntarily returned to their homeland according to the Ministry of the Interior.

(APA/Red)

This article has been automatically translated, read the original article here.