Over a million Syrians return home, but major challenges lie ahead

When former Syrian president Bashar al-Assad was toppled in a surprise rebel offensive in early December, Faisal al-Turki Najjar was one of the first people to return to his home country.

Merely two weeks after the government fell, Najjar had already packed his bags, ready to return to Aleppo with his wife and children the next day.

The United Nations said on Tuesday that more than one million people have since returned to their homes in Syria, including 800,000 internally displaced Syrians and 280,000 Syrians who came back from abroad.

However, two months into his new life in Syria, Najjar speaks of challenges that may need time to be overcome.

"I haven't worked since my return," he told Middle East Eye, adding that the education his children are currently receiving is "very poor".

Despite this, he remains determined to contribute to the new phase in Syria and notes that the security situation has at least improved.

"While the security situation is stable, living conditions and the lack of job opportunities are the main issues," he said.

Enthusiasm to return despite the struggles

According to the UN's refugee agency (UNHCR), more than 14 million people were forced to flee their homes during the civil war in Syria. Around 7.4 million of those were internally displaced, while the rest went to neighbouring countries and beyond.

"It has been said for years by refugees in surveys and by analysts and policy people that the primary barrier for people returning to Syria was the security situation, primarily the regime," Emma Beals, a nonresident fellow at the Middle East Institute, told MEE.

Indeed, in a survey carried out by the UNHCR in 2024, only 1.4 percent of Syrian refugees in Lebanon, Jordan, Iraq and Egypt said they intended to return to Syria within the next 12 months. That number rose to 27 percent in early 2025, following the fall of the Assad government.

"Now, that huge barrier has been lifted," Beals said. "This isn’t to say that there aren’t other barriers that exist but for some people, but that was the main reason they were not going back home."

Additionally, among those who said they wouldn’t or were not sure if they would return in the next year, 53 percent said they would return in the next five years.

UNHCR chief Filippo Grandi said on X that despite the eagerness of Syrians to return, "early recovery efforts must be bolder and faster, though, otherwise people will leave again: this is now urgent!"

‘How will one come back?’

In the UNHCR’s survey, key barriers to return included "concerns over available housing and status of refugees’ own properties, safety and security, economic challenges inside Syria and concerns about available basic services".

Additionally, 60 percent of respondents considered it important to make "go and see" visits before deciding to return, which some countries may not allow due to refugee regulations.

Najjar says that while some reconstruction works have begun around him, it remains slow. Most IDPs  have chosen to stay in refugee camps until the winter season ends and their children's school year concludes.

While his area of Aleppo receives water and electricity, others are not nearly as fortunate.

"I saw some villages that are completely empty," he said. "How will one come back if there is nowhere to live, no electricity and no services? There is no infrastructure, even electricity cables were taken away. That is why people cannot come back."

Najjar said that some Syrian families who settled in the region are sending one of their members back to Syria, providing him with money to repair their homes in case they decide to return.

Since Assad's fall, Syria's reconstruction and rehabilitation efforts have been slow, partly due to the limited aid entering the country and the ongoing western sanctions against the former government, which continue to prevent any investments from flowing in.

"So, you have a new administration who have a huge task ahead of them trying to repair a country that has faced 14 years of conflict, and that won’t happen overnight, even in the best of situations," Beals said.

"It certainly won’t happen if there is not a concerted effort from the international community to help facilitate that through public, private and policy instruments."

Beals also echoes Grandi's words that Syrians who returned home only to find an unfavourable situation for a decent life and leave again are unlikely to return. She urged both regional and western states eager to deport Syrian refugees to exercise more patience.

"It is in the interest of politicians across the region and Europe to take a little time to ensure that the situation in Syria is supportive of mass returns in terms of social reconciliation, rehabilitation and reconstruction of houses, property and legal concerns, livelihood, so that when people choose to go back, they can rebuild their lives, wish to stay there and contribute to the new Syria," Beals said.