Sort of put the brakes on.

Less than 24 hours ago, when word of Bashar al-Assad's bugging out of Dodge signaled the fall of decades of dictatorship over Syria was official, those always open, welcoming doors to the German Republic slammed shut.

It all came to a screeching halt.

Syria updates: Germany halts asylum proceedings for Syrians

Germany is reportedly putting a halt on asylum proceedings from Syrian citizens. The decision comes after Syrian President Bashar Assad was toppled in a lightning offensive by rebel forces. DW has the latest.

The German government started reevaluating the numbers almost immediately.

Germany is set to temporarily suspend decisions on asylum applications from Syrian citizens following the toppling of former President Bashar Assad, according to a spokesperson for the Office for Migration and Refugees (BAMF).

The halt applies to more than 47,000 asylum applications from Syrians in Germany, the spokesperson said. 

"The BAMF takes a very close look at the individual cases, including an assessment of the situation on the ground in the country of origin," an Interior Ministry spokesman told journalists in Berlin.

Interior Minister Nancy Faeser said that "the end of the brutal tyranny of the Syrian dictator Assad is a great relief for many people who have suffered from torture, murder and terror."

...There are 974,136 Syrian nationals currently living in Germany, according to the German Interior Ministry.

Of those, 5,090 are recognized asylum seekers and 321,444 have refugee status.

Austria was following suit for the 7300 or so applications they were processing, as were a number of European Union members.

...Following the fall of al-Assad, some EU countries have announced a “pause” in the processing of asylum applications while they get to grips with the situation inside Syria, they say.

The 27-member bloc’s foreign leaders will meet later this month to discuss a joint response.

In the UK, which left the EU following the 2016 Brexit referendum, Home Secretary Yvette Cooper noted that the situation in Syria is moving very fast. “And that is why, like Germany, like France, and like other countries, we have paused asylum decisions on cases from Syria while the Home Office reviews and monitors the current situation,” she said.

Bram Frouws, director of Geneva-based think tank Mixed Migration Centre, told Al Jazeera that pausing asylum claims “basically means Syrians who are still in an asylum process and awaiting a decision will be in limbo for much longer”.

Even the notorious immigrant sanctuary that Ireland has become finally announced they, too, were pausing their Syrian processing.

Finally! pic.twitter.com/6roSm9NdcX

— MichaeloKeeffe (@Mick_O_Keeffe) December 10, 2024

What seems to be the rising question from Germans, Austrians, and countries elsewhere who have sheltered these people as millions of them fled the Assad family's brutal regime...

...The moves potentially leave thousands of Syrians in limbo, following the collapse of the Assad regime after 50 years of brutal rule.

Since 2011, the UN says more than 14 million Syrians have been forced to flee their homes in search of safety.

...At the moment 47,270 Syrians in Germany are waiting for an answer to their asylum applications. Those who have already been granted asylum are not affected.

Germany has the largest Syrian diaspora population outside of the Middle East, with about one million Syrians living in Germany. About 700,000 are classed as refugees.

British Home Secretary Yvette Cooper confirmed that the UK has "paused asylum decisions on cases from Syria while the Home Office reviews and monitors the current situation".

...Between 2011 and 2021 more than 30,000 Syrians were granted asylum in the UK.

Most of these were resettled under humanitarian schemes and came directly from other countries they had fled to, such as Turkey and Lebanon.

In 2019, it was calculated that around 47,000 Syrians were living in the UK, but that number is thought to have since fallen to around 30,000.

France is working on a policy similar to the one put forward by Germany, with a decision expected in the next few hours, according to the Reuters news agency.

...is "Great. They're gone now. When are you heading home?"

...Austria's Chancellor Karl Nehammer, a conservative who is a hardliner on immigration, said in a post on X that the government would "support all Syrians who have found refuge in Austria and want to return to their home country".

He added that the "security situation in Syria must also be reassessed in order to make deportations possible again in the future".

In Germany, both the Christian Democrat (CDU) and far-right populist Alternativ for Germany (AfD) were singing from the same sheet of music, 'Home Sweet Syria,' at the news of Assad's overthrow. No one is listening to the Greens and their 'let's not be hasty' mewlings.

Days after the collapse of President Bashar Assad's regime in Syria, a debate has erupted in Germany over the possible return of Syrian migrants and asylum-seekers to their homeland.

In Germany, prominent figures on the right, from the conservative opposition Christian Democratic Union (CDU) to the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD), have been quick to suggest plans encouraging Syrians to return home.

More left-leaning voices from the Social Democrats (SPD) and the Greens, the two remaining parties in Germany's now-minority government coalition, have cautioned against drastic action.

Even the former Communist, who's the head of yet another populist and popular German party, said it's time for the happy Syrians in German city streets to pack up and head on back.

...Söder's comments were echoed by Alice Weidel of the far-right AfD, which has been officially categorized as a "suspected extremist" organization by Germany's domestic intelligence service, the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV), since February 2021.

"For many people from Syria, the reason to flee no longer exists," she told Stern magazine. "Obviously, these people should promptly return to their homeland."

Referring to joyous scenes of celebrations among Syrians in German cities since the toppling of Assad, Weidel repeated on social media: "Anyone in Germany who celebrates 'free Syria' evidently no longer has any reason to flee. They should return to Syria immediately."

Sahra Wagenknecht, a former communist whose eponymous new Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance (BSW) has been described as "left-wing populist" and pro-Russian, agreed, telling Stern: "I expect those Syrians celebrating the seizure of power by Islamists to return to their home country as soon as possible."

It kinda leads one to believe the refugees and immigrants have worn out their welcome with damn near everybody.

On the other side of the coin, the Turks are bracing for returning Syrians and their passage through Turkey.

NEW - Turkey braces for surge of Syrian refugees heading homehttps://t.co/quLRpCLMQm

— Insider Paper (@TheInsiderPaper) December 10, 2024

They are anticipating a flood of happy returnees transiting to their former home.

Turkey has expanded its border crossing capacities to accommodate the surge in Syrian refugees seeking to return home following the fall of Bashar al-Assad, the interior minister has said.

Following Assad’s ouster on Sunday, hundreds flocked to Turkey’s southern border with Syria, with Ankara quickly moving to expand its crossing facilities, Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya told reporters in remarks published on Tuesday.

“Although we had a daily capacity to accommodate 3,000 crossings, we have increased that to between 15,000 and 20,000,” Yerlikaya said.

Turkey is home to nearly three million refugees who fled after the start of the civil war in 2011, with Ankara hoping the tectonic shift in neighbouring Syria will allow many to return home.

Yerlikaya said “300-400” people crossed the frontier on Sunday but by midday on Monday, that number had “doubled”.

It's all moonlight, roses, fireworks, and wrapping yourself in the Syrian flag right now. 

Until the classic Islamic fundamentalist takeover videos start getting into wider distribution, and suddenly, no one wants to go home anymore. Worse still, even more people want out of Syria and fast.

Turkey will be screaming for help with the hordes in no time, all from a crisis they financed, guaranteed.

You hate to see it.

I sure hope they saved some of that terrorist guns and gas fund to feed the women and children.