LONDON: The Syrian Arab Republic has removed the travel bans of nearly 5 million people imposed during the authoritarian rule of the Bashar Assad regime.
Nour Al-Din Al-Baba, the Interior Ministry’s spokesperson, announced on Thursday that the ministry had processed about 8.3 million travel ban cases and had completed the removal of 5 million of them, which had restricted Syrians’ fundamental right to free movement.
He added that the former regime used the travel ban as a punishment alongside suppression, killings, detention, and displacement.
The Assad regime restricted individuals’ ability to travel abroad by preventing them from obtaining passports, residency permits, and other essential documents for civil and financial matters, Al-Baba explained.
Some individuals had been arbitrarily added to the list. Al-Baba noted that 50,000 names on the list were labeled with “unknown” nationality.
