Containers Opened
The administration of Latakia Port on 16 May 2026 began returning to their owners the personal shipments of Syrian expatriates that had remained in port warehouses for years, with no storage or customs fees applied. The release follows instructions from the General Authority for Land and Sea Ports and Customs, issued after the underlying review of the file was completed.
Three containers holding belongings of expatriate Syrian families were located. Sorting, classification, and contact with owners are now under way, and handovers are expected to continue in the coming days until every consignment in the file reaches its claimant.
A Complaints File
The port's internal oversight director, Wael Bakir, said his office had received complaints from citizens who had lost contact with shipments dispatched from abroad. The complaints triggered an audit of the warehouses, which surfaced the three containers and confirmed several listed owners were still reachable.
Allegations Against the Previous Administration
The internal review described abuses by security branches under the previous government, which it said had seized container contents under the pretext of confiscation. Investigators also identified bogus shipping companies that had charged expatriates fees for deliveries that never moved, with similar cases recorded for shipments routed from Egypt and traced to returnees.
A Returnee From Doha
Sahar Basata, who returned from Qatar and traveled from Aleppo to Latakia to collect her belongings, said the shipment she dispatched from Doha in 2023 had remained in the port's warehouses until the file was reopened. She thanked the port administration for sorting the container contents and added that earlier dealings with some shipping firms, allegedly aligned with corrupt brokers, had cost expatriates both money and time before today's handover.
What Comes Next
Port officials said the release operation will continue until every traceable expatriate shipment is handed over to its owner, and that further reviews are expected to surface additional cases. No fees will be collected on consignments returned under the directive, and owners are being contacted as records are matched to the remaining containers.