"The Migration Agency has so far assisted one person to return to Syria. A lot of Syrians have contacted Norwegian authorities with questions about returning", writes Justice Minister Astri Aas-Hansen (AP) in a response to a member of parliament.
The question was raised in light of the brutal Assad regime's fall in December. According to the UN, this has resulted in around 300,000 Syrians returning, most of them after having been on the run in a neighboring country.
Norwegian authorities offer some help to Syrians who want to return home. Aas-Hansen, however, emphasizes that the security situation in the war-torn country is unclear. Recently, several hundred civilians, mainly from the Alawite minority, were reported killed in the country's coastal areas.
Syria is now ruled by interim president Ahmed al-Sharaa, leader of the rebel group HTS (Hayat Tahrir al-Sham), which previously had terrorist connections and overthrew Bashar al-Assad's regime.
Al-Sharaa has said that minority groups and religious communities will be protected in a future Syria, and he recently signed a provisional constitution that includes women's rights and freedom of the press and expression. The document, however, establishes that Syria will have Islamist rule.
Norway's former Justice Minister Emilie Enger Mehl (Sp) urged Syrians, who knew it was safe to return, to do so shortly after the regime shift in December.
Almost 16,000 Syrian refugees lived in Norway in 2022, according to the UN's refugee agency UNHCR and the organization Arab Center Washington DC.
