Hundreds of Syrian refugees living in Libya gathered at a travel agency in Tripoli on Saturday to take advantage of the offer of free plane tickets to Damascus, AFP journalists reported.
By noon, more than 700 Syrians, many of whom have been in Libya for years after fleeing civil war, had picked up their tickets and travel permits at an agency hired by the new government in Damascus, which ousted longtime leader Bashar al-Assad in December.
According to the Syrian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, thousands of people have already taken advantage of this offer since its launch.
Thirty-two-year-old Walid Hamoud, a refugee who arrived in Libya five years ago, said that “the situation at home is still not quite stable,” but that he still wants to return, with the possibility of one day returning to Libya “legally, with a residence permit.”
His compatriot Rami Hassun fled from Idlib province in 2020 because, as he says, his life was in danger.
– Today, Syria finds peace and is in a better situation than before. We are returning to our country, thank God – he told AFP.
Mahmoud Nasr al-Din, who has been in Libya for three years, added that upon returning to Syria, “they will try to work and rebuild everything, given the extent of the destruction.” He believes there will be a “great demand for manpower” in the homeland, but stressed that the return would be much more difficult without the new travel program, as Syria still does not have a fully functional embassy in Libya.
A delegation from Damascus symbolically reopened the embassy in mid-August, which was closed in 2012, but it currently does not provide consular services.
Although there is no official census of Syrians residing in Libya, it is estimated that thousands of Syrian families have lived there for decades, while thousands more arrived after the start of the Syrian war in 2011 – many hoping to cross the Mediterranean Sea to Europe.
(Vijesti.ba)
