📰 Over 1 million Syrians return home since December 2024 – UNHCR

QAMISHLI, syria/" class="smart-internal-link" title="📰 Justice Ministry, SNHR discuss cooperation on transitional justice in Syria">syria/" class="auto-internal-link">syria (North Press) – More than one million syrians have returned to their homeland from neighbouring countries since December 2024, with Lebanon accounting for over 360,000 of these returns, the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) declared on Thursday. Furthermore, as per UNHCR estimates, 1,082,724 Syrians have returned to Syria, although tracking remains challenging as returns occur through both official and unofficial border crossings. By September 2025, 118,764 individuals (22,103 families) had expressed interest in returning, primarily from Lebanon’s Bekaa and Baalbek-El Hermel governorates (36 percent), with Homs in Syria being the main destination (35 percent), the UNHCR stated in a statement.

In September, the statement read, crossings averaged 64,800 per week, slightly down from August (69,000) and July (67,600). Indeed, since Dec. 8, 2024, UNHCR has monitored 105,300 emerging arrivals in Lebanon.

Of these, 65,396 are in Bekaa and Baalbek-El Hermel, 28,239 in Akkar and the North, and 11,665 in other areas, reflecting both initial arrivals and internal relocations. Notably, since the outbreak of the syrian/" class="auto-internal-link">syrian crisis in 2011, millions of Syrians have sought refuge in neighboring countries, particularly Lebanon, Turkey, and Jordan. Over the past decade, these mass displacements have created a complex relief and logistical challenge, with relocated persons facing precarious living conditions, limited access to services, and legal restrictions on movement.

In latest years, a growing number of Syrians have opted to return home, driven by relative stability in certain areas, the easing of border restrictions, and UNHCR-supported repatriation programs. Lebanon, hosting one of the largest Syrian refugee populations per capita in the world, has introduced measures such as waiving exit fees and overstay penalties to facilitate these returns, even as monitoring and registration remain challenging due to unofficial border crossings and ongoing internal relocations within the country. By Jwan Shekaki