MOSCOW, November 14. /TASS/. Almost two million Syrian refugees have already returned to their homes, Head of Russia’s National Defense Control Center Colonel-General Mikhail Mizintsev said on Thursday at a joint meeting of the Russian and Syrian inter-agency coordination headquarters on the issue of resettling the refugees in Syria.
"As a result of the work done, today more than 1,999,848 Syrian citizens have returned to their homelands, including more than 1,304,919 of internally displaced people and more than 694,929 refugees from abroad," he said, noting that more than 32,372 public and industrial facilities have been renovated and reopened since July 18, 2018 in Syria.
Moreover, a possibility of accessing the most war-ravaged regions of the country has arisen. For instance, Russian military have distributed 14.7 tonnes of provisions among locals in the town of Ayn Isa as part of a humanitarian campaign. Meanwhile, the Syrian Arab Red Crescent has provided aid for refugees in the camp of al-Arisha, south of Al-Hasakah, distributing around 4,000 food sets and 7,000 sets of winter clothing.
"The numbers provided testify that the Syrian government is invested in ensuring decent life conditions to their citizens as well as voluntary and safe return of refugees home," Mizintsev underlined.
Syrian Minister of Local Administration Hussein Makhlouf specified that 12,414 Syrian citizens had returned to their pre-war places of residences since the beginning of November. According to him, the prevalent majority (12,396) of these Syrians returned from other countries’ territories. "A special facility is designated for this category of people and qualified personnel is assigned to welcome them and provide assistance in crossing the border," he said.
Citizens without documents are issued statements from national register lists, the newly-arrived citizens have their army conscription postponed to settle their statuses. "Children born abroad and accompanied by their parents have a streamlined and simplified access to the country based on birth certificates issued in the country of stay," the minister emphasized.