Two million Syrians return home since al-Assad's fall: UN
Over two million Syrians who had fled their homes during their country's war have returned since Bashar al-Assad's overthrow in December, UN refugee agency chief Filippo Grandi said Thursday during a regional visit.
The Syrian civil war, which erupted in 2011 with al-Assad's brutal repression of anti-government protests, displaced half of the population internally or abroad.
But al-Assad's December 8 ouster at the hands of anti-government forces sparked hopes of return.
'Over two million Syrian refugees and displaced have returned home since December,' Grandi wrote on X during a visit to neighboring Lebanon, which hosts about 1.5 million Syrian refugees, according to official estimates.
It is 'a sign of hope amid rising regional tensions,' said Grandi, who is due to visit Syria on Friday.
'This proves that we need political solutions -- not another wave of instability and displacement.'
After 14 years of war, many returnees face the reality of finding their homes and property badly damaged or destroyed.
But with the recent lifting of Western sanctions on Syria, the new authorities hope for international support to launch reconstruction, which the UN estimates could cost more than $400 billion.
In his meeting with Lebanese President Joseph Aoun, Grandi discussed 'how to increase opportunities for Syrian refugees to return home,' the top UN official said in post on X.
'Many refugees have already made that choice. But for returns to be sustainable, Syria needs more and faster international support,' he added.
Aoun, according to a presidency statement, stressed it was necessary for Syrian refugees to return 'to their homeland, after the reasons for their displacement are gone'.
The Lebanese government has drafted a plan for the gradual return of refugees to Syria, expecting to see up to 300,000 of them return home by September, according to Deputy Prime Minister Tarek Mitri in an interview earlier this month.
The plan, according to Mitri, would involve granting each refugee $100 upon their departure -- when they would also have to pledge to not return to Lebanon as refugees -- and exempting Syrians whose documents had expired from any fines.
Earlier this month, Grandi's agency, UNHCR, estimated that by the end of 2025, up to 1.5 million Syrians may return home from abroad as well as some two million internally displaced people.
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