TEHRAN (Iran News) Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters in Moscow that the decision to grant asylum to Assad was made by Russian President Vladimir Putin.

“Of course, such decisions cannot be made without the head of state. It is his decision,” Peskov said.

He noted that Putin’s official schedule did not include a meeting with Assad and declined to provide details on Assad’s current whereabouts, saying, “There is nothing to tell.”

Peskov added that Russia is working to establish contact with those capable of ensuring the security of Russian military bases in Syria while the Russian military takes “all necessary precautions.”

Regarding the status of Russia’s military bases in Tartus and Khmeimim, Peskov said it was too early to make any definitive statements.

“This is all a subject for discussion with those who will be in power in Syria. Now we see a period of transformation and extreme instability. Therefore, it will take time. And then a serious conversation will be required with those who will be vested with power,” he said.

Peskov acknowledged that the Astana format talks on Syria, which include Russia, Turkey, and Iran, have lost their original purpose but remain relevant as a forum for political consultations and opinion exchanges.

He also confirmed that Russia is engaged in dialogue with Turkey and other regional countries regarding the developments in Syria.

Earlier, Russian state news agency TASS, citing a Kremlin source, reported that Assad and his family had arrived in Moscow and were granted asylum “guided by humanitarian considerations.”

The developments came after renewed clashes erupted between pro-Assad forces and anti-government groups on Nov. 27 in rural areas west of Aleppo.

Over 10 days, opposition forces carried out a rapid offensive, capturing key cities and advancing to Damascus on Sunday.

The swift gains, supported by defecting military units, led to the collapse of the ruling government.

Seven European countries, led by North Macedonia, Hungary, Serbia and Croatia, topped the Gallup index of the world’s least-accepting countries.

But the sharpest changes in attitudes were in Peru, Ecuador and Colombia, which have seen an influx of Venezuelans fleeing turmoil at home.

Canada was the most welcoming country towards migrants, followed by Iceland and New Zealand, according to the index based on more than 140,000 interviews in 145 countries and regions.

The poll asked people their views about having migrants living in their country, becoming their neighbors and marrying into their families.

Index scores ranged from 1.49 in North Macedonia to 8.46 in Canada, just below the maximum possible score of 9.

Gallup migration expert Julie Ray said the slight global fall in acceptance – 5.21 in 2019 down from 5.34 in 2016 – was driven by marked changes in Latin American countries.

Peru’s score tumbled to 3.61 from 6.33 in 2016, while the number of Colombians who said migrants living in their country was a good thing dropped to 29 per cent from 61 per cent, Reuters reported.

The first Gallup Migrant Acceptance Index was conducted amid the backlash following the 2015 migrant crisis in Europe, when more than a million people headed to the continent fleeing war and poverty in the Middle East and beyond.

EU countries have long been at loggerheads over how to handle the influx of migrants, many of whom arrive in Mediterranean countries after perilous boat journeys.

The bloc’s executive will unveil a plan on Wednesday which would legally oblige all members to host their share of refugees – something rejected by Poland and Hungary among others.

The proposal has been brought forward because of a fire on the Greek island of Lesbos a fortnight ago which destroyed a migrant camp holding more than 12,000 people – four times the number it was supposed to.

Among European countries, only Sweden and Ireland made the Gallup top 10 of most-accepting countries.

Ms. Ray said some people would be surprised by the positive attitudes in the United States, where President Donald Trump has made curbing immigration a cornerstone of his policy.

“Despite the fact that immigration is such a hot topic in the US, Americans are mostly very accepting of migrants,” she said.

The United States ranked sixth in the index, just behind Sierra Leone. Ms. Ray said Mr. Trump supporters were far more accepting of migrants than the global average, scoring 7.10.

Worldwide, the index showed acceptance of migrants was greater among younger generations, people with higher levels of education and those living in urban rather than rural areas.

The offer is intended to supplement the existing program dubbed ‘StarthilfePlus,’ which provides help to those migrants who decide to voluntarily return home. Under the scheme, any participant over 12 years old withdrawing their application for asylum receives €1,200. Already-rejected asylum seekers who waive their right to appeal the decision in court are given €800, and children below the age of 12 get half the sum, RT reported.

The new program, dubbed ‘Your country. Your future. Now!’ promises significantly more generous payouts to those who decide to return voluntarily. Families are eligible for up to €3,000 ($3,570) and individuals for up to €1,000 ($1,190) in addition to the payouts under ‘StarthilfePlus.’

The new offer, however, is time-limited and will last only until the end of February 2018. German Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere made use of an interview with the Bild am Sonntag newspaper to promote the new program.

“There are opportunities in your homeland. We will support…your reintegration,” de Maiziere said, addressing the migrants directly. “When you voluntarily decide to return by the end of February, in addition to startup help you can provisionally receive housing cost help for the first 12 months in your homeland.”

The new incentive to leave comes as Germany is struggling with the consequences of Angela Merkel’s “open door” policy towards refugees and migrants flooding out of the Middle East and North Africa. Since 2015, over a million people have arrived in Germany and many are staying illegally, since deportations are difficult to enforce.

Some 300,000 asylum seekers had their applications rejected by Germany last year, spelling a surge in deportations compared to 80,000 in 2016. The government has now agreed to cap the number of refugees at 200,000, but authorities are likely to remain swamped with applications for years to come, according to an internal document leaked to media in October.

Frustration with Merkel’s incoherent migration policy has cost her party a big chunk of its popularity. The CDU/CSU alliance sunk to an all-time low at September’s parliamentary elections, while the anti-immigrant Alternative for Germany (AfD) surged, entering the parliament for the first time.

The newly-proposed assistance includes “benefits in kind, such as support for rental, construction or renovation works or the basic facilities for a kitchen or bathroom,” according to the Interior Ministry-run website promoting voluntary return programs. The exact mechanism of the support payments, however, remained unclear. Under the ‘StarthilfePlus’ program a migrant only receives half the money as a lump sum, while the rest is paid by the International Organization for Migration (IOM) over a course of six months upon arrival back home.

‘StarthilfePlus,’ launched back in February, was criticized by many charities and pro-refugee organizations as a blunt attempt to get rid of unwanted asylum seekers, and the new “limited-edition” proposal appears to be facing the same reception. The German refugee organization Pro Asyl slammed the program as a cynical measure.

“[The government] is trying to entice people to give up their rights in the basest manner,” managing director Günter Burkhardt told the German news agency DPA on Sunday, as quoted by Deutsche Welle.

While the new program appears quite generous, there is no doubt that for the German government court appeal and deportation processes are costly. The migrants, however, usually spend significantly more to get to Europe than they’re eligible to get on the way back. A migrant trip to Europe costs more than €7,000 on average, according to a survey by the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees (BAMF).

They include 650,000 from South Sudan and 500,000 Muslim Rohingya who have escaped violence in Myanmar for Bangladesh over the past five weeks, many of the latter stateless, United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi said, Reuters reported.

“So far in 2017, more than 2 million people have fled their countries as refugees,” Grandi told the UNHCR Executive Committee which opened a week-long meeting in Geneva.

“They often arrive sick, traumatized and hungry, in remote border locations, in communities affected by poverty and underdevelopment. Many have urgent protection needs – children separated from their families, men, women, girls and boys exposed to sexual and gender-based violence,” he said.

At the end of last year, 17.2 million refugees fell under UNHCR’s mandate, but some of them have returned and others have been resettled, and there is no updated total. An additional 5 million Palestinian refugees are cared for by UNRWA.

Grandi voiced concern that the refugee issue has been increasingly instrumentalized in local and national policies.

“International cooperation has been replaced by fragmented responses, resulting in restrictive immigration and asylum measures, even in countries with their own histories of exile and migration, and a proud tradition of welcome,” he said.

Border closures, measures to limit entry, restrictive asylum procedures, indefinite detention in appalling conditions, and offshore processing had regrettably increased, he said, decrying “rising xenophobia”.

“We have observed the protection environment deteriorate in many parts of the world, including in industrialized countries – in Europe, in the United States, in Australia,” Grandi said.

Nearly 1.2 million refugees need resettling globally to third countries, he said.

“It is therefore an issue of major concern that fewer than 100,000 resettlement places are expected to be available this year – a drop of 43 per cent from 2016,” he said.

Traditionally, the United States has taken the largest number of refugees deemed most vulnerable under UNHCR’s resettlement program involving about 10 Western receiving countries. Syrian and Congolese refugees led those resettled last year.

The Trump administration last week proposed admitting a maximum of 45,000 refugees next year, the lowest cap in decades, which officials said was necessary to ensure US security, although Democrats and humanitarian groups blasted the decision. The report also projected slashing funding to the refugee resettlement program by 25 percent.