A Czech-led fact-finding mission to establish safe zones in Syria is under preparation as pressure increases on refugees in Europe and the Middle East to return home, The National can reveal.

The mission, exclusively confirmed to The National by officials in Prague, would be the country’s first such initiative. It may also involve Cyprus, which has pushed to establish so-called safe zones in Syria for those returning.

Only a handful of EU countries have organised such visits as most of the bloc severed diplomatic ties with Damascus after the government’s repression of a popular uprising in…