Why are Syria's IDPs returning home?
UNHCR Filippo Grandi visits Douma, Syria; Jabhat al-Nusra dead-enders and foreign fighters face last stand in Idlib.
Grandi in Douma: “Many have returned”
UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi last week visited Douma, eastern Ghouta’s main city, which was retaken by Syrian government forces earlier this year.
‘Although of course a lot of people are still displaced from their homes, many have returned,” Grandi said. “They are trying to live a normal life amidst the ruins, with very little resources, struggling to normalize life that has been disrupted by so many years of war.”
More than 750,000 Syrians displaced by the war — 11% of the total 6.6 million internally displaced people (IDPs) in Syria — have returned to their areas of origin, according to UNHCR. A much smaller number of refugees, 90,000 out of a total of 5.6 million (or 1.6%) living in neighboring countries, have trickled back to Syria in the past three years, although UNHCR is ramping up to assist a larger-scale organized return.
