On 2 December 2025, male and female workers at the Port of Tartous in western Syria organized a sit-in in front of the Tartous Governorate building, protesting decisions to transfer them to the Jarablus and Al-Bukamal crossings in the eastern governorates.
The sit-in participants had been informed of these decisions via messages on the WhatsApp application and appealed to the relevant authorities to intervene immediately to resolve the crisis.
On Friday, 28 November 2025, about 100 employees working at the Port of Latakia in western Syria received official decisions issued by the interim authority, Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham, stipulating their transfer to distant crossings in the rural areas of Deir ez-Zor, Idlib, and Aleppo, foremost among them the Al-Bukamal crossing, through messages sent to them via the WhatsApp application.
According to activists’ testimonies, the overwhelming majority of those transferred are from the Alawite sect, including women, which gives these collective decisions a clear sectarian dimension.
These decisions came in the context of a retaliatory measure following a wide wave of peaceful demonstrations that took place along the Syrian coast and in the central regions of the country on 25 November 2025 at 42 locations, concentrated in areas with an Alawite majority. The demands raised were: an end to killing, kidnapping, and enforced arrest, the release of detainees, and the adoption of a federal system of governance.
These peaceful protests were followed by demonstrations by supporters of the authorities in the cities of Homs, Baniyas, Hama, and Latakia, during which sectarian slogans were chanted calling for the killing and displacement of Alawites. In the city of Latakia, groups described as sectarian roamed neighborhoods with an Alawite majority and vandalized cars and commercial shops.
