Over 2,000 Syrian refugees return from Jordan

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Over 2,000 Syrian refugees have returned from Jordan to Syria since the Nasib crossing re-opened between the two countries last month, state news agency SANA reported on Wednesday.

A total of 2,380 Syrians, who had lost their official documents, have returned to Syria within a month, the report cited Mazen Ghandour, head of the immigration center in Nasib in the southern province of Daraa, as saying.

It said the Syrian embassy in Amman has provided the Syrian refugees, who had fled to Jordan during the war and lost their documents, with temporary clearances to allow them back into the country.

300 of the returnees were asked to report for military service and arrived in the country to take advantage of a pardon offered for draft dodgers who return to the country within a specific period of time.

In August, the Syrian cabinet announced the formation of a committee to coordinate the return of refugees to Syria through "intensifying contacts with friendly countries to provide facilitation to enable the refugees to return."

A Syrian soldier stands guard at the Nasib border crossing with Jordan in Deraa, Syria, July 7, 2018. /VCG Photo

The border crossing was closed in 2015 when the rebels took over the Nasib area and the crossing in the countryside of Daraa province in southern Syria.

The Syrian army captured Daraa and the border crossing in July after the rebels in the province surrendered to the army and agreed to evacuate to rebel-held areas in northern Syria, mainly the northwestern province of Idlib.

Both Jordan and Syria officially re-opened the Nasib-Jaber crossing last month.

(Top image: Syrian refugees listen to a news conference of UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi at the Al Zaatari refugee camp in Jordan, February 12, 2018. /VCG Photo)

Source(s): Xinhua News Agency