Nearly 60,000 Syrian refugees return home following Assad regime's fall, UN reports
"Since 8 December, a total of 58,350 Syrians (26% men, 28% women and 46% children) returned to Syria primarily from Lebanon, Jordan and Türkiye," the UNHCR stated in a press release.

Dec. 28, 2024
ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) - The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) announced that nearly 60,000 Syrian refugees have returned to their homeland since the downfall of Bashar al-Assad's regime earlier this month.
"Since 8 December, a total of 58,350 Syrians (26% men, 28% women and 46% children) returned to Syria primarily from Lebanon, Jordan and Türkiye," the UNHCR stated in a press release.
The agency noticed that the main destinations of returnees have been Daraa, Homs, Aleppo, and Raqqa.
The mass return follows the dramatic developments of Dec. 8, 2024, when Syrian opposition forces, led chiefly by Turkish-baked Hayat tahrir al-Sham (HTS) and its allies, succeeded in taking the control of country’s capital city of Damascus, ending the half-a-century Assad dynasty as a result.
The ousted Syrian president Bashar al-Assad fled to Russia by plane at 4:50 AM, shortly before opposition forces entered the capital city.
The Syrian refugee crisis has been one of the major displacement crises in recent history, with millions of Syrians fleeing their homeland during Assad's regime.
Prior to the regime's downfall, Syria's neighboring countries accommodated the majority of these refugees, with Turkey, Lebanon, and Jordan bearing the largest burden.
According to official data by the UNHCR, more than 327,000 refugees and asylum-seekers have been living in Iraq. “90% of whom are Syrian and live in the Kurdistan Region.”
The current wave of returns indicates a shift in the Syrian refugee situation, as people start to return following the political changes and transitions in their homeland.
However, the UNHCR's figures signify only a small fraction of the total Syrian refugee population, which numbered in the millions during the height of the crisis.
As refugees return, they are faced with the harsh reality of a nation in ruin after more than a decade of internal conflicts and war.
“When our village was liberated, we were very happy about the victory. It is more than I can express, thanks to God. When we left our houses, we locked them and we brought the keys with us, we didn't carry anything with us,” Zakia Daemes, an internally displaced person from Maarshorin, Idlib countryside, told the Associated Press.
However, Daemes found her house completely destroyed when she returned. “We went back yesterday and found everything destroyed, houses flattened, rubble everywhere. We went to see the olive trees, they were uprooted. Even the tannur (Arabic oven) was broken. Nothing was left but rubble.”
“Living in tents is not easy, but what can we do? Even if we go back to our village, we have to take the tent with us. We cannot afford to rebuild. What are we going to do? Thank God our land is back at least. If we die we will be buried in the village. So far everyone had been buried in different places,” she said.
Abdulqaher Zekour, a resident of Saraqeb told the Associated Press, “Thank God, we were able to go back to our city, it was liberated thanks to God. But we were shocked because our city is completely devastated.”
“People are currently unable to return because the city of Saraqeb is not at all ready for residents. None of the necessities for life are there: sewage, water, electricity, a bakery, schools do not exist so people cannot return for these reasons,” Zekour added.
“The people of Saraqeb city are in dire need of humanitarian aid. Some families have returned but they are lacking all life necessities. The situation is very hard. We cannot live in the city without the necessities of life,” he said.
The international community continues to monitor the situation closely, as the stability of post-Assad Syria will likely be a crucial factor in determining the pace and scale of future refugee returns.