(Les premiers syriens quittent la Belgique pour un retour en Syrie. note de rené)

First group of Syria refugees leave Belgium to return to their homeland, following fall of Assad

January 16, 2025 at 8:55 pm. Middle East Monitor

Syrian children are seen on the truck at the Yarmouk Refugee Camp, which was under siege by the forces of the Bashar al-Assad regime for three years, in the south of capital Damascus, Syria on December 29, 2024 [Emin Sansar – Anadolu Agency]

The first group of Syrian refugees living in Belgium have left to return to Syria today, amid the newfound safety and security stabilisation within their country following the fall of the Assad regime.

According to the Turkish news outlet, Anadolu Agency, the spokesperson for Belgium’s Ministry of Migration and Asylum, Bart Tierens, told it that two dozen Syrians had registered to be part of the first group to return to Syria, and that they were set to leave on Thursday.

With the majority of the group reportedly consisting of single men, as well as a family with children, the returnees’ departure was a result of their applications to the Ministry of Migration and Asylum to return, making it the first known mass voluntary return by Belgium’s Syrians to their country since the outbreak of the 13-year-long civil war and the subsequent refugee influx into Europe.

Tierens cited a written statement from that department’s Minister, Nicole De Moor, on the issue, which highlighted an increasing interest among Syrians in Belgium who approach the ‘voluntary return desk’ at the Belgian Federal Agency for the Reception of Asylum Seekers, in an apparent wish to return to Syria since the deposition of the late Assad regime – a regime under which they could previously not return to due to the high risk of detention, torture and death.

The statement compared the 24 Syrians’ voluntary return to the return of only two Syrians to their country last year, describing this as “a significant increase” in comparison.

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