Home affairs ministers are expected to discuss whether migrants could be returned from the European Union to Syria.
EU ministers are meeting in Luxembourg to discuss immigration issues.
Many European countries are already offering voluntary schemes for Syrian nationals living in the EU to return to Syria.
The United Nations refugee agency, UNHCR, estimates than one million people have already returned to Syria since the collapse of the Bashar al-Assad regime last December.
But human rights organisations including UNHCR have continually warned about the dangers still present in the country.
“Those who are returning face immense challenges. Destroyed homes and infrastructure, weak and damaged basic services, a lack of job opportunities, and volatile security are challenging people’s determination to return and recover”, UNHCR says.
Some European countries want to press ahead with mandatory returns to Syria.
Austria is at the front of the queue and is planning to start returns shortly following a test case in the European Court of Human Rights.
The ECHR ruled that it would not block the forced return.
“This sets an extremely worrying precedent and should not serve as a green light for Austria’s reckless and premature deportation policy”, Shoura Zehetner-Hashemi, Executive Director of Amnesty International Austria said last month.
EU officials have signalled that a wider European go-ahead could still some time off.
Nonetheless EU home affairs ministers are expected to discuss the issue over lunch today.
It is understood that the EU wants to ensure the new Syrian regime is well enough set up to receive migrants before Europe starts sending them in large numbers.
There are estimated to be around 1.3 million Syrians living in the EU. Around 4,000 Syrian migrants came to settle in Ireland during the Syrian civil war.