Bashar Assad’s wife has reportedly been banned from returning to the UK for cancer treatment

Asma Assad, the British-born wife of ousted Syrian regime leader Bashar Assad, has been effectively banned from returning to the UK after her British passport expired, according to local media.

Without a valid passport, Asma Assad cannot return to her native London, according to the Sunday Times. Moscow confirmed earlier this month that the Assads had left Damascus and been granted asylum in Russia, although their exact whereabouts are unknown.

The report further indicates that he is in critical condition due to leukemia, with only a 50-50 chance of survival.

“The revelation about her passport status came as her father, Fawaz Akhras, an eminent cardiologist, left his post at a Harley Street (London) clinic in an apparent bid to care for his daughter full-time in Moscow, where he fled before the collapse of the Syrian regime,” the report said.

It remains unclear whether government officials deliberately prevented her from renewing her British passport when it expired in September 2020, or whether she voluntarily allowed it to expire, the report added.

Government sources, however, “confirmed that she no longer holds a valid British travel document and made it clear that Yvette Cooper, the Home Secretary, will not allow her to enter the UK due to ill health,” the paper said.

David Lammy, the foreign secretary, had previously told MPs that Asma, a former investment banker in the City, was ‘not welcome here’.

The expiry of her British passport means the government no longer needs to consider revoking Asma Assad’s citizenship, it said.

In 2012, a year after the Syrian civil war broke out, it was hit with sanctions from the UK and the EU, which included an asset freeze and a travel ban.

Bashar Assad, Syria’s leader for nearly 25 years, fled with his family to Russia after anti-regime groups seized control of Damascus on December 8, ending the Baath Party regime that had been in power since 1963.

The seizure came after Hayat Tahrir al-Sham militants seized key cities in a lightning offensive that lasted less than two weeks.