How many Syrians have returned home one year since the fall of al-Assad?

December 8 marks 1 twelvemonth since the al-Assad dynasty, which lasted 54 years, was removed from powerfulness by a rebel offensive.

The 14-year-long warfare led to 1 of the world’s largest migration crises, with immoderate 6.8 cardinal Syrians, astir a 3rd of the population, fleeing the state astatine the war’s highest successful 2021, seeking refuge wherever they could find it.

More than fractional of these refugees, astir 3.74 million, settled successful neighbouring Turkiye, portion 840,000 recovered refuge successful Lebanon and 672,000 successful Jordan.

The animation beneath shows the fig of Syrian refugees who fled from 2011 to 2025, highlighting the apical 10 countries that hosted them.

Now, arsenic Syria is entering a caller chapter, millions of refugees and members of the diaspora are weighing the determination to instrumentality location and rebuild their lives.

‘The feeling of belonging’

Khalid al-Shatta, a 41-year-old absorption medication nonrecreational from Damascus, decided to instrumentality to Syria aft fleeing the state successful September 2012.

Al-Shatta, on with his woman and one-year-old son, archetypal fled to Jordan by car earlier flying to Turkiye, which became their impermanent home.

Al-Shatta recalls the anticipation surrounding al-Assad’s fall. On the nighttime it happened, helium said, everyone stayed up to ticker the news.

“The infinitesimal Syria was liberated, we made our decision,” helium told Al Jazeera. “My household and I came to the decision that we person to instrumentality to Syria, and beryllium portion of its future,” helium explained.

Al-Shatta describes returning to Syria for the archetypal clip successful 13 years and feeling “like I person ne'er near Syria before, with 1 difference, the feeling of belonging to this country, to this nation, this land”.

Syrian refugees surviving successful Turkiye hold to participate Syria astatine the Cilvegozu borderline crossing gross successful Reyhanli connected December 12, 2024, pursuing the toppling of Bashar al-Assad [Yasin Akgul/AFP]

How galore Syrians person returned from abroad?

Al-Shatta and his household are among the much than 782,000 Syrians documented by the International Organization for Migration (IOM) who person returned to Syria from different countries implicit the past year.

Of those who person arrived from abroad, 170,000 person returned to Aleppo, 134,000 to Homs and 124,000 to agrarian Damascus.

(Al Jazeera)

Since returning to Damascus, al-Shatta has opened his ain business, focused connected powerfulness solutions. However, helium says galore returnees are struggling to find enactment with suitable salaries.

“Syria is not inexpensive [to live] compared with the mean salaries; determination are occupation opportunities, yet the salaries are challenging,” helium says.

He explains however the prime of beingness varies greatly for Syria’s population, which present stands astatine 26.9 million. “Some families are surviving connected $150 to $200 per month, portion others unrecorded connected $1,500 to $2,000, and immoderate gain adjacent more,” helium explains.

Despite the emergence successful returns, constricted occupation opportunities and precocious surviving costs proceed to undermine semipermanent resettling. Housing remains unaffordable for many, leaving returnees successful damaged homes oregon costly rental units.

According to the IOM, portion 69 percent of Syrians inactive ain their property, 19 percent are renting, 11 percent are being hosted for free, and 1 percent are squatting.

(Al Jazeera)

New EU asylum guidelines

In the days pursuing the autumn of al-Assad, respective European countries – including Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Germany, Greece, Italy, Sweden, and the United Kingdom – announced plans to intermission asylum applications from Syrians.

The frost applied to some caller applications and those already successful process, leaving galore Syrians successful limbo astir whether they would beryllium accepted, rejected oregon deported.

As of mid-2025, full asylum applications crossed the EU+ – European Union countries positive Norway and Switzerland – fell by 23 percent compared with the archetypal fractional of 2024.

The diminution was driven chiefly by a steep driblet successful Syrian applications. Syrians lodged astir 25,000 applications successful the archetypal fractional of 2025, a two-thirds alteration from a twelvemonth earlier.

For the archetypal clip successful much than a decade, Syrians are nary longer the largest nationality radical seeking asylum successful Europe.

On December 3, the EU issued updated guidance for Syrian asylum applicants, saying opponents of al-Assad and subject work evaders “are nary longer astatine hazard of persecution”.

Between 2012 and June 2025, EU+ states granted exile presumption to astir 705,000 Syrian applicants, according to the European asylum agency.

Syrians observe the archetypal day of the toppling of the Bashar al-Assad authorities successful Damascus, Syria, aboriginal connected December 6, 2025 [Ghaith Alsayed/AP]

Returning to ‘destroyed and demolished’ homes

In summation to the 782,000 Syrians returning from abroad, the IOM has documented astir 1.8 cardinal internally displaced Syrians returning to their towns implicit the past year.

This brings the full fig of Syrian refugees and IDPs who person returned location implicit the past twelvemonth to 2.6 million. Of those internally displaced, 471,000 person returned to Aleppo, astir 460,000 to Idlib, and 314,000 to Hama.

(Al Jazeera)

Talal Nader al-Abdo, 42, from Maaret al-Numan successful confederate Idlib, was 1 of the internally displaced Syrians who returned location from a structure wherever helium and his household had been living.

“I was 1 of the victims of [Bashar al-Assad’s] brutality,” al-Abdo told Al Jazeera.

His household had been internally displaced aggregate times, archetypal from Maaret al-Numan, past to Ariha, past to Idlib, and yet to the borderline camps Kafr Jalis and Harbanoush of bluish Syria, wherever al-Abdo recalls the harsh days they spent successful the utmost acold and aggravated heat.

“When the authorities fell, I knew that alleviation had come, the bombing had ended, and the clip was adjacent for america to instrumentality to our homes, adjacent though they were destroyed and demolished. We would instrumentality and rebuild them,” al-Abdo added.

Throughout the war, al-Abdo, unneurotic with his wife, 3 sons, daughter, and aged mother, stayed successful northwestern Syria “because we had large religion that 1 time God would assistance america alleviation and we would instrumentality home”.

Bullet holes deface a mural depicting toppled Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, successful Adra municipality connected the northeastern outskirts of Damascus, December 25, 2024 [Sameer Al-Doumy/AFP]

Despite galore returning home, determination are inactive much than six cardinal Syrians who stay internally displaced, according to the IOM.

The largest stock of those are surviving successful agrarian Damascus (1.99 million), followed by Aleppo (1.33 million) and Idlib (993,000).

(Al Jazeera)