ANKARA, April 16 (Xinhua) -- A total of 175,512 Syrians have voluntarily returned to their country from Türkiye since Dec. 9 last year, Turkish Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya said Wednesday.
According to Yerlikaya, the number of Syrians who have returned from Türkiye since 2017 has now reached 915,515. These returns, comprising 33,730 families, have been carried out in what authorities describe as a "voluntary, safe, dignified, and orderly" manner.
Yerlikaya stressed that the return process is managed transparently, with oversight from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).
To facilitate the process, Türkiye has introduced measures allowing authorized exit and re-entry and has deployed migration representatives in Syria to monitor and support returnees on the ground.
Millions of Syrians fled their country following the outbreak of civil war in 2011. Türkiye, sharing a long border with Syria, became a major refuge, hosting more than 3.6 million Syrians at the peak of the crisis, according to UN figures. ■
