ALEPPO, Syria — Over the past few weeks, the number of Syrian refugees voluntarily leaving Turkish lands and heading back toward opposition-controlled areas in northwestern Syria has increased. Young people started flocking back home to Syria after Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced tighter measures April 26, including a full lockdown in Turkey, to curb the spread of COVID-19.

Almost every day since, large numbers of Syrian refugees have gathered in front of the immigration office in southern Turkey's Hatay province, where they hand over their temporary protection cards and then head to Syria through the Bab al-Hawa border crossing controlled by the rebel group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham in Idlib province. Bab al-Hawa is the only Syrian crossing that welcomes back refugees returning voluntarily because of the difficult conditions, including unemployment, that they face.

A 24-year-old Syrian refugee who recently returned from Turkey to Idlib told Al-Monitor on condition of anonymity, “I used to work in a sewing workshop in the city of Gaziantep in southern Turkey, but I lost my job when the prevention measures were imposed, due to the lockdowns and a lack of demand for clothes. All the money I had saved in recent years [before the coronavirus pandemic] I spent on living expenses and paying rent.”

He added, “A group of my Syrian friends and I decided to return to Syria after the recent lockdown decision in Turkey. The majority of the Syrian refugee young people in Turkey work in restaurants, cafes, construction, sewing and embroidery workshops, many of which have completely closed. We are no longer able to secure income for housing and living expenses, so we decided to hand over our temporary protection cards and head to Syria.”