146 Tajik nationals will be brought back to Tajikistan from Syria by charter flight today, the state-run news agency Khovar reports, citing the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Tajikistan.
Meanwhile, Radio Liberty’s Tajik Service, known locally as Radio Ozodi, says of those to be brought back to Tajikistan from Syria today, 42 are women and 104 children.
Radio Ozodi says tee plane will fly to Dushanbe form Damascus.
Recall, Tajik Ambassador to Kuwait Zubaydullo Zubaydzoda on July 21 met in Damascus with the Vice President of the Syrian Arab Republic for Security Affairs, Head of the National Security Bureau of Syria, General Ali Mamlouk, to discuss the issue of repatriation of Tajik citizens from Syria.
It is to be noted that the Tajik government has said it is determined to bring back home all Tajik women and children who are being held at prisons and refugee camps in Syria and Iraq.
As part of a larger program since 2019, Tajikistan has repatriated 84 children from Iraq, where their Tajik mothers were jailed for being members of the extremist group. But that effort was suspended in 2020 when the coronavirus pandemic led to border closures and halted international travel.
Tajik Foreign Minister Sirojiddin Muhriddin told reporters in Dushanbe on July 27, 2020 that some 500 Tajik nationals are currently living in camps in Syrian territories controlled by Kurds.
“There are 286 women and children among them who want to return home. “We are closely cooperating with the Syrian authorities in this direction,” Muhriddin said.
According to him, they are also closely cooperating with UNICEF and International Committee for Red Cross (ICRC) in this direction.
