Al -Jazeera Net Correspondents
27/6/2025–|Last update: 08:03 (Mecca time)
Syria- Ahmed Raslan, who holds dual citizenship, talked Türkiye Al -Jazeera Net for obstacles facing the Syrians residing there to return to their country, including the inability to return to Türkiye if they leave, high travel costs, and re -equip the collapsed houses in Syria.
The Syrian Mohammed Al -Rayes was unable to return to Türkiye after obtaining permission from the Immigration Department in Istanbul It is allowed to go to Syria and then return to Türkiye.
“I traveled to my country and spent for nearly two months, and when I decided to return on June 21 through the shepherd crossing, the employee told me that my residence data in Turkey is completely hidden from” Al -Sisse “(electronic system).”
When he communicated with the Immigration Department – he added – they told him that his stay was null and void because of the “address of the house”, and they asked him to withdraw the residence card, and he was expelled from the crossing, he said.
Al -Rayes pointed out that his family resides at the same house in Turkey, and the employee highlighted the contract of the rental rental from the notary, but he did not care about it.
handicaps
After years of absence from the homeland, the dream of returning in front of those who carried the tragedy of the displacement to escape death out of Syria was dispersed. The six months that passed after the fall of the previous regime were not sufficient to overcome the obstacles and obstacles that stand in the face of many Syrians wishing to return from Türkiye to Syria.
Ahmed Raslan explains the difficulties of return, according to two categories:
- The first: Whoever holds the temporary protection card (refugees), and these people are unable to go to Syria and return to Turkey, where their return to Syria is registered as a “voluntary return” after which it is not possible to return to Turkey, and these are many of them their homes destroyed and their villages are still not eligible for housing and there are no services.
He added that the Turkish authorities granted the head of the family one time a visit to Syria so that he could restore his home and then return to the transportation of his family, but here the large cost obstacles from transporting the furniture of his house are added to him, and also the inability to restore the house, in light of the circumstances in which he lived as a worker in Turkey.
- The second: Double Turkish citizenship, and these are allowed to leave only through airports towards Damascus, Lebanon or Jordan, and this matter delivered a great campaign on the heads of families with a large number because of the cost of obtaining passports for all family members and airline tickets that cost up to 5 thousand dollars to the family.
On the other hand, the same spokesman added that one of the most important problems is the Syrian identification documents of the family, because many families have left Syria without identification documents and have no Syrian personal evidence such as (directing the registration, identity and family book) for the wife and children who were born in Türkiye.
Destruction, law and prevention
In light of the increasing return by the Syrians across the Turkish border to the Syrian territories, other difficulties stand, including:
- Difficulties related to their destroyed towns and villages, which lack the simplest elements of life, and they cannot return to them in light of the great destruction left by the previous regime.
- Legal difficulties are that double nationality holders are unable to move to their country except by traveling by air to Damascus, Lebanon or Jordan.
It is noteworthy that the Turkish authorities rushed to take measures that facilitate the return of the “full” Syrians (temporary protection card) to their homeland, carrying with them their luggage and home furniture from the land crossings between Turkey and Syria, and allowing the family of the family to visit Syria with more than one visit in preparation for the rehabilitation of his place of residence to transport his family.
The Syrian refugee, Muhammad al -Rayes – who prevented from returning to Turkey – believes that the declared reason is contrary to the truth, and believes that the actions of those in charge of immigration fall within the “voluntary return” scheme by preventing some returnees to Syria from returning to Turkey.
Al -Rayes says that he returned to Syria after a 6 -year alienation to explore job opportunities in the field of media, and to see the state of the country and the costs of living and rents, then going to Turkey to arrange the final return procedures to Syria, such as ending the home contract, selling or transporting furniture, and closing the bills, but he was deprived of that, and this great load was thrown to his wife and child.
Arrangements
In turn, the director of relations at the General Authority for Land and Navy, Mazen Alloush, says in an exclusive interview with Al -Jazeera Net that the number of returnees from Turkey to Syria has reached from the fall of the regime until mid -June 2025 from the land ports of approximately 275 thousand citizens.
Alloush added that the Great Return was one of the two land crossings in northern Syria, and they are the Bab Al -Hawa crossing from the governorate side Idlib Bab Al -Salama crossing from the northern countryside of Aleppo, with 95% of the returnees, while the rest is one of the other ports.
He pointed out that the border crossings between Syria and Turkey are witnessing a remarkable increase in the numbers of citizens returning from Turkey from the holders of the temporary protection card (Al -Kamlik), in the context of the “voluntary return” chosen by thousands of Syrians in response to the transformations that the country witnessed after the liberation, and the state institutions restore their full role in controlling security and providing stability requirements.
He pointed out that the General Authority for the Land and Navy Ports take all the necessary arrangements to ensure a safe and smooth transit for the returnees, as they are received at the accredited border crossings and the completion of procedures quickly and efficiently, while providing the technical and administrative cadres to serve them and facilitate their crossing with their furniture and their belongings.