The Ministry of Defense in the Syrian Interim Government (SIG) announced the opening of the Abu al-Zandeen crossing in rural Aleppo for Syrians returning from Lebanon to their areas, adding to the main crossing point for returnees from Lebanon, which is the Aoun al-Dadat crossing.
The ministry stated in a statement on Wednesday, October 23, that the opening of the Abu al-Zandeen crossing is to alleviate the difficulties that returnees from Lebanon faced in reaching northwestern Syria, ensuring safe and organized entry for them.
The ministry explained that the increase in the number of Syrians arriving from Lebanon after the Israeli escalation, and the harassment they faced along the way to the Aoun al-Dadat crossing, “despite the efforts made by the military police to organize and regulate the entry process,” sometimes led to temporary stops in the organized and smooth entry procedures.
Abu al-Zandeen is located in the city of al-Bab in rural Aleppo and connects regime-controlled areas with opposition-controlled areas in northwestern Syria, allowing those coming from Lebanon to reach regime-held areas and then directly into northwestern Syria, without passing through areas controlled by the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF).
The Aoun al-Dadat crossing connects the opposition-held city of Jarablus with the SDF-controlled city of Manbij and was the only official crossing between northwestern Syria and the rest of the Syrian regions.
At the beginning of this month, hundreds of Syrians arriving from Lebanon gathered at the Aoun al-Dadat crossing to enter northwestern Syria, remaining three days waiting for permission to enter.
The region witnessed local movements to pressure the military police to open the crossing for the hundreds of those stranded, which was successful on October 3.
Families continued to arrive at the Aoun al-Dadat crossing, but the process was slow, and the families complained about mistreatment, especially before reaching the crossing.
Video recordings published on social media during the first week of this month showed dozens of families gathered at the crossing, most of them children and women in poor conditions, some of whom spent three days in the open before the Interim Government allowed them to cross.
According to the media office in the Interim Government, the entry of families is proceeding gradually according to the procedures the government has begun to implement to facilitate and organize their entry.
There are teams from the civil registry sent by the government to Aoun al-Dadat to document the arriving individuals, collect their personal information and take personal photos and fingerprints, and issue them civil status documents, so they can move around various opposition-held areas and also visit the organizations working in the region and the government bodies.
With this process, those coming from Lebanon will have documents issued by the Civil Registry Office, to complete these procedures later by obtaining official personal identities issued by the civil registry centers in the areas they are located in.