United Nations refugee commissioner Filippo Grandi reported on Saturday that almost 200,000 refugees have returned to Syria since Iran- and Russia-backed dictator Bashar Assad was overthrown by a jihadi insurgency in early December.
The U.N. High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) estimates that since the beginning of the Syrian civil war in 2011, over 14 million civilians have been displaced from their homes. About 5.5 million of them fled to the neighboring countries of Lebanon, Jordan, Iraq, Egypt, and especially Turkey, which has the largest population of Syrian refugees.
Turkish officials made some rather blunt efforts to encourage Syrians to return home after the fall of Assad, including offers of one-way bus tickets. The Turkish national government decided to allow one member of every refugee family to make up to three trips to Syria and back before July 1, 2025, to pave the way for resettlement.
Despite these incentives, and growing hostility from their Turkish hosts as the years have gone by, many Syrian refugees are worried their homeland remains unsafe, or that they do not have homes to return to after more than a decade of warfare and pillage.
Many more Syrians fled beyond the Middle East, with an especially large population of about 850,000 in Germany. About 7.2 million Syrians were internally displaced to other parts of their own country.
According to Grandi’s figures, about half a million Syrians returned to their country last year after Hezbollah attacked Israel, launching a conflict in Lebanon, which housed 1.5 million refugees from Syria.
“Soon I will visit Syria, and its neighboring countries, as UNHCR steps up its support to returnees and receiving communities,” Grandi said on Saturday.
Given the size of the refugee population in Turkey and other neighboring countries, Grandi’s total of 200,000 returning home since the fall of Assad is far smaller than the flood of returnees hoped for by weary host countries.
Germany last week added Syria to a program called REAG/GARP, which offers financial incentives to migrants and refugees to return to their countries of origin. The offer to Syrians includes paid travel expenses and a one-time support payment of about $1800. The German government has also offered medical support for returning refugees.
The U.N. has urged other countries to offer financial support to returnees, noting that many displaced Syrian families “have little shelter and few economic prospects.”
“In recent weeks, there has been talk in high-level international circles of the need for ‘early recovery’ and ‘rebuilding’ – but until we move from words to action, for many refugees… their new life in Syria will unfortunately mean sleeping surrounded by plastic sheeting,” said UNHCR Representative for Syria Gonzalo Vargas Llosa.
The U.N. International Organization for Migration (IOM) warned that “winterization” is one of the most urgent needs for refugees returning to areas that have seen buildings and infrastructure destroyed during the civil war.
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