Palestinians displaced from Syria's Yarmouk camp to finally go home
The camp had been the focus of fighting and seizure by Islamic State and Syrian government forces.
![A member of the Syrian pro-government forces rides a bicycle through a damaged street in the Yarmuk Palestinian refugee camp on the southern outskirts of the capital Damascus on May 22, 2018. - The government seized earlier in the week the Yarmuk Palestinian camp and adjacent neighbourhoods of Tadamun and Hajar al-Aswad from the Islamic State (IS) group , putting Damascus fully under its control for the first time since 2012. (Photo by LOUAI BESHARA / AFP) / The erroneous mention[s] appearing in the metadat](/sites/default/files/styles/article_hero_large/public/almpics/2020/10/GettyImages-961403346.jpg/GettyImages-961403346.jpg?h=a5ae579a&itok=fpcN9V_C "961403346")
RAMALLAH, West Bank — Palestinian refugees in Syria are expecting to return to Yarmouk Palestinian refugee camp soon. Damascus announced Oct. 5 that it will permit the return of Palestinian refugees and Syrian nationals to the camp, Samir Jazaerly, an administrative official in the Damascus governorate, told the Syrian Al-Watan newspaper.
Jazaerly set out conditions for those who want to return: The houses they are returning to must be safe or require only minor renovation, and whoever wants to return must prove ownership of the property and obtain approvals from the security authorities.
In November 2018, the Syrian government tasked the Damascus governorate with “infrastructural renovation and provision of basic services to Yarmouk camp to pave the way for the return of the displaced.”
Hussein Chahabi, a Palestinian doctor who works for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) and currently lives in Dahiyat al-Assad suburb in south Syria, expressed joy at the prospect of returning home to Yarmouk in south Damascus.
