Dutch government's first chartered flight returns 84 Syrain refugees to Damascus

A plane departed from Rotterdam The Hague Airport carrying 84 Syrians who had been living in the Netherlands to Damascus, the Syrian capital. This is the first time the Dutch government has used a chartered flight to return Syrians to their country of origin.

According to the Ministry of Asylum and Migration, the group of Syrians is voluntarily returning to Syria. The vast majority were living in the Netherlands as refugees or were still in the asylum process. Before entering the plane, they had to sign a paper saying they were withdrawing their asylum application, according to NOS.

Earlier this year, the government invited Syrians to sign up for repatriation through a return assistance program that includes financial support. Adults received €2,800 and children €1,650 for leaving the Netherlands and returning to Syria. The program was prompted by the fall of the Assad regime in December 2024, which the Dutch government believed would improve the safety situation so that people could return to Syria.

According to figures from the Repatriation and Departure Service (DTV), over 700 Syrians have left the Netherlands voluntarily since the fall of the Assad regime. Around 150,000 Syrians live in the Netherlands.

The Ministry had invited the press to witness this first chartered flight returning people ot Syria. NOS spoke to a 12-year-old boy wearing a Syrian flag around his shoulders. “I’ve never seen Syria before. We left four months after I was born. I’m quite nervous,” he told the broadcaster. He said he’ll start school in Syria later this month. “It’s just been built. But I’m also going to miss the Netherlands: the people, the school, and the teachers.”

A 21-year-old man told the broadcaster that he was heading to Aleppo, where his two children are waiting for him. He hasn’t seen them in two years. “I waited a long time for the Immigration and Naturalization Service (IND) so my children could come here. But they’re not coming. That’s why I want to go back. It was a difficult decision, because my brother and mother live here in the Netherlands, my wife and children live there.”

DTV director Simone Steendijk told ANP that the security situation improved for many Syrians after the Assad regime fell, and that is one of the reasons that refugees are voluntarily returning to the country. “Others indicate that they miss their country or family members, that they cannot settle sufficiently in the Netherlands, or that uncertainty about prospects in the Netherlands is a reason for voluntary departure.”

The monetary compensation for returning is to help the Syrians build a new life, Steendijk said. “This is the first time we have used a government flight for voluntary departure. This experience ensures that our service is better equipped to expand returns to Syria, if necessary.”