More than 175,000 Syrian refugees to Turkey They returned to their country after the fall of Bashar al -Assad’s regime in early December, the Turkish interior minister said today.
Nearly 2.8 million Syrians remain refugees in Turkey, Minister Ali Yerlikaya said, stressing that 175,512 returns recorded between December 9 and April 13 were all “voluntary”.
The Turkish government, which supports the new authorities in Damascus, is hoping to accelerate the repatriation of Syrian refugees, whose presence has caused strong tensions in Turkey in recent years.
In total, about 400,000 Syrians have returned to their homes from neighboring countries since early December, according to the UNHCR.
During the same period, more than one million internal displaced Syrians also returned to their homes, UNHCR stressed.