50.000 Syrians return from Turkey after issue of exemption
IDLIB, Syria (North Press) – The number of Syrian going home about a month after cross-border procedures were relaxed for Syrian residents in Turkey has reached about 50.000. Syrians passed through four border crossings into their country after the earthquake that struck south Turkey and northwest Syria on February 6.
Recently, Turkey eased border-crossing regulations for Syrians holding the Temporary Protection Identity Card (Kimlik) from any of the earthquake-stricken provinces.
The new law, passed in the wake of the February 6 earthquake, allows Syrians holding the Kimlik from one of the ten quake-hit Turkish provinces to return to their country for three to six months. Until recently, the government had followed a populist policy of expelling Syrian refugees and barring their re-entry into Turkey. 50.000 Syrians were returned from Turkey in 2022 alone. Accusations that Turkish authorities are forcefully expelling them abound.
The Bab al-Hawa border crossing with Turkey, north of Idlib, announced that the number of Syrians arriving to northwestern Syria from the affected Turkish areas through Bab al-Hawa reached 17.487.
The number of arrivals through Bab al-Salama border crossing, north of Aleppo, reached 11,410 as of Friday evening. 13.829 entered through Jarabulus border crossing, northeast of Aleppo, according to statistics published by the Crossings’ Administration on its official accounts.
The Tel Abyad border crossing, north of Raqqa, said that 7.860 Syrians entered the region through its crossing.
These numbers have been on the decline after recent Turkish government statements hinting that those who crossed would not have the opportunity to return.
On February 19, Turkish Defense Minister Hulusi Akar said that 10.633 Syrians returned to their country “voluntarily” after the earthquake, sparking fear among Syrians that they would not be allowed to return to Turkey and that the new law is only the government’s new anti-refugee scheme.
A sources in the Bab al-Hawa crossing management told North Press that the number of arrivals at the crossings has declined to less than a third lately after the recent Turkish statements. “Bab al-Hawa received nearly 1.000 people per day in the first days of the exemption. Now, however, the number of arrivals does not exceed 300.”