Syria
UNHCR helps 546 IDP families return home to Syria’s eastern Deir-ez-Zor province on August 24, 2025. Photo: UNHCRinSYRIA/X
ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Some one million Syrians have returned to their country since the ouster of longtime dictator Bashar al-Assad in early December, the United Nations said, adding that nearly two million internally displaced persons (IDPs) have also returned to their hometowns.
The Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA) on Thursday quoted Celine Schmitt, the spokesperson for the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), as announcing that “one million Syrians have returned to their country since December 8, calling on the international community to scale up its support for Syrians and help the country rebuild.”
In addition to those returning from overseas, “another 1.8 million people who were displaced inside the country have also returned to their areas of origin,” Schmitt said.
Following a swift offensive in early December, a coalition of opposition groups led by the now dissolved Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) - then led by Ahmed al-Sharaa - toppled the Assad regime.
Sharaa was appointed interim president in late January. Since then the interim authorities have been actively campaigning for the return of millions of refugees and internally displaced persons to the “new Syria.”
The Syrian interim president on Wednesday addressed world leaders at the 80th meeting of the UN General Assembly (UNGA), noting that the Assad regime “killed around one million [Syrians], destroyed about two million homes … and displaced around 14 million people.”
“Syria today is rebuilding itself through establishing a new state, building institutions and laws that guarantee the rights of all without exception,” Sharaa said, urging continued support from the international community in that regard.
According to the UNHCR, some seven million Syrians are still displaced inside the country and more than 4.5 million have sought refuge abroad.
Schmitt on Thursday noted that “UNHCR continues working with the Syrian authorities and other UN agencies, to create conditions conducive for return and reintegration in areas severely affected by the decade-long conflict.”
She pointed to “destroyed homes and infrastructure” as a major hindrance to the return of refugees and IDPs, lamenting that “only 30 per cent of the requested funds” for relief “have been provided.”
Schmitt's remarks notably coincided with those of UN Refugee Chief Filippo Grandi who described the developments in Syria since December 8 as an “opportunity to resolve one of the largest displacement crises in the world.”
Grandi urged the international community, private sector, and Syrians abroad to intensify efforts to support Syria’s, according to a statement on the UNHCR’s official website.
“We must not forget about the millions of Syrians who are still refugees hosted in neighboring countries” who have suffered in the past 14 years and still need protection and assistance, " Grandi stressed.
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