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More than 25,000 Syrian refugees have crossed the Turkish border to return to their country over the past two weeks, Turkish Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya said on Tuesday.
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December 24, 2024 – 09:57
(Keystone-ATS) A previous figure communicated by the Turkish authorities reported 7,621 returns from Turkey between December 9 and 13, the four days following the fall of Bashar al-Assad.
Turkey, which shares a border of more than 900 km with Syria, still welcomes on its soil some 2.92 million Syrians who fled the war which ravaged their country from 2011, said Mr. Yerlikaya.
“Easing strong anti-Syrian sentiment”
Among them, more than 500,000 live in Istanbul, Turkey's largest city, he added to the state news agency Anadolu.
The Turkish minister said that migration management offices would be created within the Turkish embassy in Damascus and the Turkish consulate in Aleppo to facilitate the procedures for refugees returning to Syria.
Turkish authorities, who hope for the return of large contingents of refugees to Syria in order to alleviate strong anti-Syrian sentiment among the population, will also allow one member of each refugee family to travel to Syria and return three times. during the first half of 2025 in order to prepare for their resettlement.
Syrian refugees will also be able to take their vehicles with them, which was previously impossible for them, added Mr. Yerlikaya.
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