"The worsening security situation in Syria has made the government to immediately take its citizens out of Syria," the Foreign Ministry`s Director of Information and Media, PLE Priatna, said.Jakarta (ANTARA News) - Indonesia is accelerating the repatriation of its citizens in Syria to Lebanon and later to Indonesia due to worsening situation in that country.
"The worsening security situation in Syria has made the government to immediately take its citizens out of Syria," the foreign ministry`s director of information and media, PLE Priatna, said here on Thursday.
Like before the government would use the route of Damascus-Beirut-Jakarta for the repatriation, he said.
In view of security consideration all citizens that have now been accommodated at the embassy in Damascus would be moved to Beirut in stages although process of their administration was still ongoing, he said.
The number of the citizens is at present recorded at more than 600 but it is predicted to increase further because of the situation, he said.
Indonesian ambassador to Lebanon Dimas Samodra Rum said he was ready to welcome the arrival of the citizens from Syria and has prepared an office space in the embassy to accommodate them and if necessary would rent an apartment for it.
"The embassy resources would be fully exploited to help the process of repatriation in line with the directives. The repatriation has become the priority of the embassy in Beirut," he said.
Dimas said 156 citizens had arrived in Beirut on December 24 and 70 of them would be sent home on December 26 while 128 others could arrive from Syria on December 28.
Until December 24 the Indonesian government has returned 633 citizens from Syria.(*)
Editor: Heru Purwanto
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