Ahmed Atef (Cairo, Damascus)
The announcement of the voluntary return of hundreds of thousands of Syrian refugees to their country sparked a widespread desire for family reunification, amid calls for national reconciliation and overcoming obstacles, including reconciling legal conditions and providing adequate housing and living conditions.
While Turkey recently announced the return of half a million Syrian refugees to their country, Lebanese President Michel Aoun revealed, last Wednesday, that “the return of the displaced Syrians to their country” will begin this week.
Lebanon was a destination for hundreds of thousands of Syrians who fled their areas with the exacerbation of the crisis. The authorities estimate that there are more than 1.5 million refugees on its soil, while the number of them registered with the United Nations is more than 830,000.
Since 2017, the Lebanese General Security has been organizing voluntary mass returns, according to which more than 400,000 refugees have been returned to Syria, according to an established mechanism, and the next batch will include 1,600 people.
Syrian sources confirmed to Al-Ittihad that more than 5 million Syrians have fled since the outbreak of the crisis in 2011, and most of them reside in neighboring countries, including 3.5 million in Turkey, about a million in Lebanon, and more than half a million in Germany, in addition to smaller numbers in European countries. Others, pointing out that the Syrian government is now discussing legalizing the situation and facilitating the return of refugees amid reconstruction efforts.
The Executive Director of the Syrians for Truth and Justice Organization, Bassam Al-Ahmad, considered in a statement to Al-Ittihad that half a million returnees to Syria are a large number, and that their return to northern Syria was not ideal, especially with living crises in their places of return.
Al-Ahmad added: “Syrians have realized that the world is preoccupied with other wars in Europe, economic crises and global pandemics, which makes them know that no one will stop in front of their crisis, and therefore there is no alternative to returning.”
Regarding the intentions and perceptions of Syrian refugees about return, 36 percent of the Syrians in Jordan want to return within 5 years, according to an official census there, while 2.4 percent have the intention to return within a year.
To explore the changes that Syrians aspire to see in order to return to their country, a number of centers conducted a series of interviews, which included hundreds of Syrian refugees in Lebanon and Jordan, and the result was related to several matters, most notably the safety of their children, adequate housing, and security.
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