TRIPOLI: Hundreds of Syrian refugees living in Libya poured into a travel agency in Tripoli to take advantage of an offer of free tickets to Damascus, AFP journalists saw.
By midday, more than 700 Syrians, many of them residing in Libya for years after fleeing their country’s civil war, had come to collect tickets and travel passes from the agency commissioned by the new authorities in Damascus.
In all, thousands have taken up the offer since the Syrian Arab Republic’s Foreign Ministry first announced it.
Walid Hamud, a 32-year-old refugee who arrived five years ago, acknowledged that “the situation still is not very stable” back home, but nonetheless wanted to return, while keeping open the possibility of coming back to Libya for work “legally with a residence permit”.
Fellow refugee Rami Hassun fled Idlib province in 2020 because his life was in danger, he said.
