Malaysia to Evacuate Students, Close Syria Embassy
As Syria's uprising turned into full-scale war in 2012, countries from Asia to the Gulf pulled out their citizens and shut their embassies in Damascus.
In 2012, as fighting in Syria spread to Damascus and Aleppo, Malaysia moved to evacuate its citizens, many of them students at Syrian universities and religious institutes, and to close its embassy in Damascus. It joined a long list of countries that pulled out diplomats and nationals as the uprising against Bashar al-Assad became a civil war.
Why students were there
Syria had long been a destination for students from Muslim-majority countries in Southeast Asia, including Malaysia and Indonesia. They were drawn by the reputation of its Arabic-language teaching and Islamic scholarship, as well as relatively low living costs. When the violence escalated, those communities found themselves in cities that were becoming front lines.
A wave of closures
Malaysia's decision was part of a broader diplomatic exodus:
- Gulf states and many Arab League members withdrew their ambassadors and closed embassies in protest at the government's crackdown.
- Western countries, including the United States, Britain and France, suspended embassy operations in early 2012.
- Asian governments organised evacuations by land to Lebanon and Jordan and by air from Damascus while flights still operated.
What followed
The war would last more than a decade, displacing more than half of Syria's population. Syria's diplomatic isolation began to ease in the early 2020s, when several Arab states reopened embassies and Syria was readmitted to the Arab League in 2023.
After the fall of the Assad government in December 2024, governments around the world, including many that had closed their missions in 2012, began re-establishing contacts with the new authorities in Damascus. For students and businesses from Asia and the Arab world, Syria's reopening is now an open question of security, reconstruction and trust.