Since December, nearly 200,000 Syrian refugees returned home: UN
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Damascus: Since December of last year, about 200,000 Syrian refugees have made their way back to their homeland, according to UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi.
According to statistics Grandi shared on social media site X on Saturday, since the overthrow of President Bashar al-Assad's regime on December 8, 2024, about 195,200 Syrians had returned home as of January 16.
He also announced plans to visit Syria and neighbouring countries soon to strengthen the support of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), the UN Refugee Agency, for returnees and host communities, though the timeline remains unspecified, reports Xinhua news agency.
Meanwhile, according to the post, the UNHCR estimates more than 550,000 Syrians returned to their home country in 2024, with the northern Aleppo governorate receiving the largest share -- about 23 per cent of the returnees.
While many Syrian refugees have shown interest in returning, a UNHCR report released on Friday noted mixed sentiments, as some refugees remain cautious. Many of them have emphasised the need for financial and logistical assistance to be able to return and rebuild their lives and homes inside Syria.
In response, the UNHCR and its partner organisations advance an inter-agency plan to facilitate refugee returns, according to the report. The agency also underscored the importance of sustained funding and protection programs for both refugees and host communities.
Earlier on December 17, the UNHCR Director for the Middle East and North Africa Rema Jamous Imseis said that around 1 million Syrian refugees may return to their homeland between January and June 2025.
"We have forecasted that we hope to see somewhere in the order of one million Syrians returning between January and June of next year," Imseis had said during a press conference in Geneva.
She described the recent developments as bringing "a tremendous amount of hope" for resolving the ongoing humanitarian crisis in Syria. However, she emphasised that regime change does not necessarily mean the end of the ongoing crisis, highlighting the immense challenges ahead.
With inputs from IANS