‘250,000 Syrian refugees could return home next year’
GENEVA (Reuters) – Up to 250,000 Syrian refugees could return to their devastated homeland in 2019, while many others face problems with documentation and property that the Damascus government must help resolve, the UN refugee agency UNHCR said on Tuesday.
Some 5.6 million Syrian refugees remain in neighboring countries – Turkey, Lebanon, Jordan, Egypt and Iraq – Amin Awad, UNHCR director for the Middle East and North Africa, said.
They include one million Syrian children born abroad whose foreign birth certificates the Assad government has agreed to recognize, he said.
Some 37,000 refugees have returned to Syria this year, UNHCR figures show. They went mainly to the governorates of Dera’a, Damascus and Homs, Awad said.
“Now, by and large, the war has ended. We have a few pockets (of hostilities), including in Idlib, as you know [now] that there is a negotiated ceasefire and a de-escalation zone,” Awad told a news briefing.
“As the situation in Syria improves some of these refugees are making the journey home,” he said. “We are forecasting, in what we call phase one, up to 250,000 Syrians [will] go back in 2019. That figure can go up and down according to the pace with which we are working and removing obstacles to return.”
The most important obstacles to return are documentation for refugees and their property and homes, Awad said.
“Then there are issues related to conscription, there are issues related to amnesty for those who deserted the army. These are drivers that would basically keep people away, they are obstacles.”
Other hindrances include mines and unexploded ordinance, and it will require a huge demining operation to clear agricultural and civilian areas, Awad said.
On Tuesday, the UNHCR appealed to donors for $5.5 billion to support neighboring countries and provide health, water, sanitation, food, education, and psycho-social support to Syrian refugees.
“Their living conditions have deteriorated as their existence in exile prolongs. They have been borrowing money, they are indebted and a lot of them are living below the poverty line, 70%-80% of them are living below the poverty line in their host communities or countries,” Awad said.
“We are asking donors to stay the course,” he added.