Dozens of Syrian refugee families have returned to their home villages after years in displacement camps across northern Idlib, advancing the country’s broader repatriation efforts.
A convoy transporting 220 displaced families traveled back to communities in Hama, Homs, Aleppo, Deir Ezzor, Latakia, Damascus, and the outskirts of Idlib, according to the Syrian Arab News Agency. The returnees received bedding kits, food baskets, and ready-to-eat canned goods provided by the Syrian Arab Red Crescent and the Violet charity.
Mohammad Bakir, director of the Northern District of Social Affairs and Labor in Idlib, said multiple authorities coordinated the operation, including the UN Refugee Agency.
Fatima Al-Ahmad, who lived in tents and makeshift accommodation for 13 years, said she was relieved to finally return to Qleidin village in Hama’s Al-Ghab Plain. Murhaf Al-Saffan, a former resident of the Al-Karama camps in Idlib, said residents had endured years of hardship. Despite finding his home partially damaged, he decided to return, SANA reported.
The convoy is part of the “Syria Without Camps” initiative, which aims to facilitate the return of displaced Syrians to their communities.
Syria’s civil war, which erupted in March 2011, forced more than 13 million people from their homes, including over 6 million refugees outside the country and more than 7 million internally displaced at various points. Since the fall of the Bashar Assad regime in a late 2024 rebel offensive, more than 3.5 million Syrians have returned, according to UN figures.