Nearly 30% of Syrians want to go home, up from almost zero

26/1/2025 6:34

Almost 30% of the millions of Syrian refugees living in Middle Eastern countries want to return home in the next year, following the fall of President

Bashar al-Assad, up from almost none last year, the head of the U.N.'s refugee agency said.



The shift is based on an assessment done by the U.N. in January, weeks after Assad was ousted by Islamist rebels, bringing an abrupt end to a 13-year civil war that had created one of the biggest refugee crises of modern times.



"We have seen the needle move, finally, after years of decline," Filippo Grandi told a small group of reporters in Damascus, after holding meetings with the Syria's new ruling administration.



The number of Syrians wishing to return "had reached almost zero. It's now nearly 30% in the space of a few weeks. There is a message there, which I think is very important, must be listened to and must be acted upon," he said.