250,000 refugees could return to Syria next year: UN
A quarter of a million Syrian refugees could return home next year, despite massive hurdles facing returnees, the UN said on Tuesday, urging support to the millions still in neighboring countries.
“We are forecasting ... up to 250,000 Syrians go back in 2019,” Amin Awad, who heads the UN refugee agency’s Middle East and North Africa operations, told reporters in Geneva.
“That figure can go up and down according to the pace with which we are ... removing the obstacles to return,” he stressed.
There are currently 5.6 million Syrian refugees living in the region, including around 1 million born into displacement, according to UNHCR data.
The agency said that 117,000 refugees had returned to Syria since 2015, including 37,000 this year.
“These are organized returns, completely voluntary, in safety ... and of course with UNHCR involvement,” Awad said.
Despite the winding down of Syria’s devastating conflict, which has killed more than 360,000 people since 2011, Awad said returnees face a whole host of obstacles.
These range from documentation confirming identity and property in Syria to a dire lack of education, health care and sanitation in the places to which they return.
There are also issues related to conscription and questions around those who deserted the army when they left Syria, Awad said.
And there are obstacles related to physical security even in places where the fighting has stopped, including large amounts unexploded ordinance.
UNHCR is working with the Syrian government to try to improve conditions for those who wish to return, Awad said.
The UN refugee agency, along with the development agency, meanwhile launched an appeal for $5.5 billion to support national efforts in 2019 and 2020 in Turkey, Lebanon, Jordan, Egypt and Iraq to continue hosting the millions of Syrians still not ready or able to return home.
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Constitutional committee
The UN special envoy for Syria said on Monday work is still ongoing to form a committee meant to draft a new constitution before the end of the year, adding that hurdles remain in place.
Staffan de Mistura made his comments in Jordan after meeting Minister of Foreign Affairs Ayman Safadi who said that Jordan’s “firm position” is that a political solution must be found, and “destruction and killing must be stopped in order for Syria to be recovered and to restore its role as a cornerstone in the region.”
Last month, Syria’s warring sides and mediators meeting in Kazakhstan failed to agree on the formation of a constitutional committee which is key to ending the seven-year civil war. De Mistura at the time called it a “missed opportunity.”