ISLAMABAD: The foreign office said on Tuesday around 350 Pakistan nationals stranded in Syria, including 245 pilgrims, had crossed the Syria-Lebanon border, hours after Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif announced that the repatriation of expats was a “top priority” for his government.
More than 1,300 Pakistanis had been stranded in Syria since last week when opposition forces seized the capital of Damascus unopposed following a lightning advance that sent President Bashar Assad fleeing to Russia on Sunday.
While Pakistan’s foreign office initially said the Pakistanis, which included pilgrims, would be evacuated once the Damascus airport reopened, PM Sharif on Monday sought his Lebanese counterpart Najib Mikati’s “personal intervention” to evacuate the expats.
“Around 350 Pakistani nationals including 245 Pakistani Zaireen [pilgrims] stranded in Syria have crossed the Syria-Lebanon border,” the foreign office said in a statement on Tuesday evening.
This handout photograph, released by Pakistan’s foreign ministry on December 10, 2024, shows Pakistani nationals crossing the Syria-Lebanon border amid the country’s repatriation of expats after Syria’s opposition forces seized the capital of Damascus last week. (Photo courtesy: MOFA)
“Under the directions of Prime Minister Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif and Deputy Prime Minister/Foreign Minister Senator Mohammad Ishaq Dar the Embassy of Pakistan, Damascus facilitated the repatriation process.”
Deputy head of mission Umar Hayat accompanied the Pakistani nationals to the border where the deputy head of mission in Beirut, Nawab Adil, received them in Lebanon.
Pakistan’s embassy earlier said Syria’s airports and borders with Jordan and Oman were currently closed, posing a “major challenge” to the repatriation effort. The embassy said it would accommodate Pakistani nationals at a school run by the mission in the meantime, so they could have a secure place to stay while repatriation flights were arranged.
Syria’s new interim leader announced on Tuesday he was taking charge of the country as caretaker prime minister with the backing of the former opposition forces who toppled President Assad three days ago.
In a brief address on state television, Mohammed Al-Bashir, a figure little known across most of Syria who previously ran an administration in a pocket of the northwest controlled by opposition forces, said he would lead the interim authority until March 1.
