MEZIESBLOG

Syrian asylum seekers waiting for cases to be approved in the UK should be deported as their previous cases for leaving the country are now “baseless” after the end of the Assad regime, says Robert Jenrick.

Speaking to Kay Burley on Sky News Breakfast, the former immigration minister said the British asylum system must not allow Syrians to “change their case” to stay in the UK.

“In a majority of those cases, they will have rested their asylum claim on the fact that there was a fear of persecution by the Assad regime. Now that that regime no longer exists,” he said.

Mr Jenrick added that Hayat Tahrir al Sham, the rebel group that has seized power in Syria, is still on the UK’s list of banned terrorist groups, so “we don’t know what the situation will be like in the months ahead”. 

“But we do know that many, perhaps most, of those asylum cases are now baseless.”

He said UK asylum authorities “need to be rejecting the asylum cases on the basis of their existing claim, deporting those individuals or organising voluntary returns back home to Syria.”

Israel launches ‘350 airstrikes on Syrian military sites in 48 hours’

The Israeli military says it has struck more than 350 military sites across Syria, destroying most of the country’s “strategic weapons stockpiles” over the past 48 hours.

In an update on Telegram last night, the Israel Defence Forces shared footage of its forces bombing what it said were the al Bayda and Latakia naval ports, where 15 Syrian vessels were docked.

It said anti-aircraft batteries, airfields and weapons production sites in Damascus, Homs, Tartus, Latakia and Palmyra, were also struck.

Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, has claimed attacks on Syria are to ensure weapons used by the Assad regime do not fall into the hands of jihadists.

“We have no intention of interfering in the internal affairs of Syria,” he said in a video statement, “but we certainly do intend to do what is necessary to ensure our security.”

On Monday night, Sky News teams witnessed airstrikes light up the sky in Qamishli, northeastern Syria. Security sources in the country say they were Israeli strikes.