Do We Need To Book 30,000 One Way Flights, Home Office?

The Home Office would like to facilitate the return of refugees to Syria, a minister has said, saying about 6,500 asylum claims had been suspended as the government waited to assess the fallout from the end of the Assad regime.

And what about the ones already here? Claiming asylum from a regime which is no more?

Homsi is one of nearly 30,000 displaced Syrians in the UK celebrating the fall of Assad and what Keir Starmer described as his “barbaric regime” over the weekend, when Hayat Tahrir al-Sham rebels seized power in a fast-moving offensive.

Shimale’s story is similar to Homsi’s. He came to the UK in 2016 because he would have been imprisoned if he had stayed. He said: “I’m sure I can [return to Syria] now. With Assad away, I will be able to go back.”

Ruba Sulaiman Khaled, a trainee solicitor and influencer from Stockport who has been unable to return to Syria since 2011, said she hoped there would be a “revolution, a new start for Syria” and that it was a time to “establish the country from the ground up”.

Anyone taking bets on how many will actually go back?