About half of Syria's people have fled their homes since the war broke out in 2011.
AFP/Doha
Syria's opposition "embassy" in Qatar began on Thursday to renew expired passports for some of the estimated 60,000 Syrians living in the Gulf country, its chief said.
Nizar Haraki, the opposition envoy, said this would help thousands of Syrians who fled the country to escape the conflict, which has killed at least 200,000 people since it erupted in 2011.
It was not immediately clear whether the service would extend to Syrians living elsewhere.
About half the country's people have fled their homes since the war broke out, with the UN saying 3.8mn of them are refugees, mostly in neighbouring countries.
Haraki told AFP the service "removes a huge burden from the shoulders of Syrian expatriate citizens who are deprived of having a passport or being able to renew or extend it."
Haraki said 52 countries had been contacted to ask if the passports would be accepted and that all but one, Canada, had said yes.
