The assistant researcher at the Omran Center for Strategic Studies, and non-resident fellow at the Tahrir Institute for Middle East Policy (Timep), Muhsen AlMustafa, explained in an interview with Enab Baladi that the decision related to military service is “closely” tied to the regime’s attempt to curb the migration of skilled professionals. He cited Decree No. 16, which the regime’s president issued two days after the decision, accepting a number of medical students and medical degree holders as obligated to serve in public institutions.
He also believes that the Syrian regime is trying to limit the migration of doctors not only because of the shortage in medical staff, but also because, from the regime’s perspective, a medical student studying in Syrian universities for more than six years and then emigrating to work abroad constitutes a “financial loss.”