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BRUSSELS/PARIS: Austria is preparing to deport a Syrian man whose asylum status was revoked due to a criminal conviction, in what an EU official and rights groups say will be Europe’s first forced deportation to Syria since the fall of President Bashar Assad.

Rights groups are concerned that Austria’s plan could set a precedent, encouraging other EU member states to follow suit amid rising anti-migration sentiment across the 27-nation bloc.

The 32-year-old man, who was granted asylum in Austria in 2014, lost his refugee status in February 2019 because of his criminal record, his legal adviser Ruxandra Staicu said. She refused to specify the nature of his conviction.

Deportation to Syria was not possible during the country’s civil war as it was considered unsafe. 

The Austrian government argues that Assad’s fall means the situation has changed and it has begun proceedings to strip some refugees of their status.

Austrian and Syrian authorities agreed for the man to be deported last week, but the closure of airspace due to the Iran-Israel conflict delayed the process, Staicu and a Western diplomat said.

The diplomat added that the deportation would now go ahead once the airspace reopened.

Since 2015, European countries have received around 1.68 million asylum applications from Syrian nationals. Some governments, most notably Germany, initially welcomed them warmly as civil war ravaged their homeland.

But rising public concern over the scale of immigration has fueled support for far-right, anti-migrant parties.

With the fall of Assad last December, many EU governments were quick to suspend the processing of Syrian asylum applications, and some have called for the security situation in Syria to be reassessed to enable deportations to resume.

In Austria, former Chancellor Karl Nehammer, from the ruling Austrian People’s Party, is among those calling for such a reassessment, amid pressure from the far-right Freedom Party.