Since the fall of Bashar Al-Assad's regime, Mahmout's phone has not stopped ringing. A taxi driver, barely in his thirties, he commutes, in mid-December, between Gaziantep, the large city in southern Turkey, and the customs post of Oncüpinar, near Kilis, on the Syrian border, located almost an hour's drive. Demand is strong, he smiles, several dozen phone calls per day from Syrian refugees, eager to return home after years of exile.
Read also | Article reserved for our subscribers In southern Turkey, the beginnings of the great return of Syrian refugees to their homeland
Read later
With his eye fixed on the crossing point, strictly supervised by the gendarmes, he says he knows his new clientele perfectly: “Most Syrians in precarious situations want to leave, like seasonal agricultural workers, who are numerous here in the region, or workers in small factories with low wages, all these jobs that are easy to leave overnighthe assures. The others will come later. »
The trip, one way, luggage and bags full of belongings included, Mahmout billed it at 2,000 Turkish liras, a little less than 55 euros. He shrugs his shoulders, by way of justification: “Not many people are going the other way at the moment. » According to a local official, on Monday, December 9, the first day after the fall of the Syrian dictator, between 500 and 700 people flocked to the Oncüpinar post to go to Syria and sign a “voluntary return” paper. demanded by the Ankara authorities. A document which records their definitive departure from Türkiye.
You have 83.54% of this article left to read. The rest is reserved for subscribers.
World
