In the midst of a deteriorating humanitarian crisis, Syria is at a critical juncture as it endeavors to rebuild and reintegrate citizens who are returning to their homes. This warning was issued by the United Nations.
According to the most recent data from the UN Humanitarian Coordinator, approximately 1.2 million Syrians have returned home since former President Bashar al-Assad was overthrown in December. This number includes 302,000 refugees and 885,000 internally displaced people (IDPs).
The International Organization for Migration (IOM) reports that 13 percent of Syrians returning from abroad came from Iraq, 22 percent from Turkey, and 50 percent from Lebanon.
According to the IOM, over 25 percent of people who have returned to their home countries are living in incomplete or destroyed structures.
After 14 years of civil conflict, the UN refugee agency (UNHCR) estimates that up to 3.5 million refugees and internally displaced persons may return home this year, hoping for a new beginning.
Humanitarian Responses Are Stalled
Al-Assad’s government had attempted to promote the idea of a “safe return” for refugees in recent years, but only a small portion of the country had been rebuilt, and many of those who did return were imprisoned or forced into the army.
The difficulties in reintegrating returnees, such as a lack of essential services, security threats, and missing legal papers, have been highlighted by UN agencies and non-governmental organizations.
According to the UN last week, at least 7 million people are still displaced nationwide, and efforts to provide help are being hampered by serious economic issues, such as limited power and cash shortages.
The country’s 1.15 billion UN-coordinated humanitarian response was only 12.5 percent funded as of mid-March, leaving critical sectors including agriculture and nutrition, shelter, non-food aid, and water and sanitation underfunded.
“The cost of inaction […] is much more expensive than responding to the immediate needs of the Syrian people,” Adam Abdelmoula, the UN’s humanitarian coordinator for Syria, stated during a briefing last week.
Old Wounds are Reopened by New Violence
According to Abdelmoula, fresh fighting in coastal, southern, and northern Syria has caused thousands of people to be uprooted once more and made it more difficult to distribute aid.
After insurgent groups led by the Islamist Islamic Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, or HTS, overthrew al-Assad in early December, there was a period of relative stability. However, earlier this month, new violence erupted between government security forces and al-Assad supporters from his Alawite minority ethnic group.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a war monitoring organization based in the UK, reported that over 1,000 people had perished over the course of several days of combat, making it one of the greatest death tolls in the decade.
The interim administration, headed by interim President Ahmad al-Sharaa, made an agreement with the Kurdish-led authority that governs the country’s northeast a few days after the violence that reopened the scars of the civil war.
During a five-year transitional period, al-Sharaa also pledged to defend the rights of all Syrians under a temporary constitution that places Syria under Islamist control.
UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi called for increased international assistance and financing for displaced Syrians during a donor conference held in Brussels last week. In addition to respect for human rights, he stated that those who return to their villages must have access to work, housing, energy, water, sanitation, and education.
“But don’t make any mistakes: the consequences will be catastrophic if we don’t assist them in remaining in Syria. Grandi informed the conference that not only would returns cease, but those who did return—as well as likely many others—would relocate once more.