Syrians in front of the Syrian embassy in Amman to apply for passport renewal (Associated Press-Archive)

The Syrian Network for Human Rights said - today, Wednesday - that the Syrian regime arrested 1,168 people in the immigration and passport departments in several Syrian governorates while they were obtaining a passport, and 986 of them were subjected to enforced disappearance, from March 2011 until this February.

The Syrian Network for Human Rights explained - in a report - that among the arrests were 16 children and 96 women, out of 1,912 arrests, including 21 children and 256 women, in the same time period. The Syrian regime had released 723 detainees, and 21 of them died under torture. 1,168 remain in detention so far.

Other violations

According to the human rights report, the arbitrary detention to which Syrians were subjected while trying to obtain a passport in immigration departments is one of the six other violations committed by the Syrian regime in internal immigration departments and external consulates.

The Human Rights Network confirmed that some Syrians were subjected to fraud during the process of obtaining the passport, as obtaining it now requires brokers who receive amounts ranging from 400 to 5,000 dollars, especially since many Syrians cannot apply to obtain the passport on their own for fear of being arrested.

Many Syrians also faced ill-treatment that amounts to degrading human dignity in consulates, such as being forced to stand for long hours in queues that end up not getting a turn in the end, which forces them to pay bribes to consular employees.

The human rights report indicated that the long period of months to obtain a Syrian passport threatened the residency of Syrians in countries of asylum and resulted in some losing their jobs.

The Human Rights Network report stated that one of the violations committed by the Syrian regime was “issuing unrecognized electronic passports,” after the regime imposed it last August, because the regime did not coordinate with countries around the world to inform them of the changes to the Syrian passport.

The human rights report confirmed that the Syrian regime’s imposition of security approval on everyone wishing to obtain a passport from 2011 to 2015 is a violation of the right of Syrians to obtain a passport, especially since security approval is not available to opponents of the regime who were forced to pay thousands of dollars to issue a passport.

Report: A series of violations inside and outside #Syria carried out by the #Syrian_regime when issuing a passport.


1,168 cases of arrest in immigration and passport departments, including 16 children and 96 women, 986 of whom were turned into enforced disappearances. #Syrian_Network


To view the full report: https://t.co /k3k5LJNJrA pic.twitter.com/npXefOxYAA

- Syrian Network (@SN4HR) February 28, 2024

Source of income

The Syrian Network for Human Rights considered that the Syrian regime considered the passport a source of income while imposing a high price on it and blackmailing citizens to obtain it, after the scarcity of the Syrian government’s financial resources since the start of the war.

There are no official statistics on the amount of money entering the state treasury from issuing passports, while the high cost of issuing or renewing passports deprives citizens who are unable to pay these amounts of their right to travel, according to the report.

The price of an urgent Syrian passport for those residing outside Syria is $800, and a regular passport is $300, whereas before 2011 it was only $9, and its issuance does not take more than a few days.

The Syrian passport is the most expensive passport in the world, although it is the second worst passport in the world, as it only allows its holders to enter 29 countries without a visa, and Syrians must spend $100 - at the price approved by the Syrian government - to enter Syria.

Source: Al Jazeera