Secretary of the Syrian Coalition’s political committee Riyad al-Hassan called on the United Nations to find practical solutions to the many problems facing millions of Syrians regarding travel documents. He said that the Assad regime uses travel documents to extort money from the Syrian people.
The United Nations needs to urge member states to accept travel documents that the Syrian people have even when the documents have expired, Hasan said. He called upon the UN to impose strict punitive measures should the Assad regime continue to blackmail the Syrian people in the diaspora.
The Syrian consulates in Istanbul and Amman on Monday said that they were stopping the renewal of passports and travel documents for Syrian citizens, without giving a reason. Syrian refugees in these two countries must apply for new passports in return for the extortionate fee of 800 USD.
Hasan pointed out that the Assad regime aims through this decision to further humiliate the Syrian people and to extort money to fund its war machine against the Syrian people. The money the Assad regime extorts through the issuance of travel documents is an important source of funding for its war effort.
Hasan said that the United Nations bears responsibility for the regime’s actions as it continues to acknowledge the legitimacy of the regime. He stressed that the regime’s policy violates international law and international humanitarian law which ensure the right to free movement. (Source: Syrian Coalition’s Media Department + Agencies)
