Safe returns to Syria are not yet in reach: Secretary General urges evidence-based policy and ramped-up support

14 years of civil war came to end in December 2024, making way for hope, but leaving behind mass destruction, sky-high humanitarian needs, and the highest density of unexploded ordinance in the world. Rebuilding Syria will take a long time; sustained donor engagement, evidence-based returns policy, and holistic humanitarian support cannot be allowed to flag at this critical stage of new and fragile peace. 

“There’s a narrative of regret among returnees” 

Just over a year has passed since civil war in Syria came to an end with the fall of the Assad-led government. New hope for the future has seen sustained mobilization to rehabilitate the country’s society, institutions and infrastructure. But the context is fragile, and destruction is widespread; in Syria, two out three need humanitarian aid just to survive.  

Millions of Syrians have returned home following the end of civil war; but they return to neighbourhoods in ruins. Without adequate shelter or reliable access to food and drinking water, no income, and recent outbreaks of conflict in some regions, returnees are forfeiting their safety.   

Earlier this month, DRC Secretary General Charlotte Slente led an advocacy mission to Syria, where DRC have operated since 2008.  

“Rebuilding Syria will take a long, long time”, said Affan Chowdhry, DRC’s Global Media Advisor, accompanying Slente. “There’s a real narrative of regret among returnees, because they’ve come back to a reality that’s barely survivable”. 

“There’s so much despair and desperation in the population that’s returning”, said Slente in an interview with WBUR’s Here & Now from Damascus. “There’s a government in place that people have hope for in terms of changing Syria, but basically the humanitarian needs are the same as they were a year ago. You don’t bounce back from a civil war that has been so deep, so intense, and had lasted for so long. I saw that with my own eyes today.”  

Two thirds of the population need humanitarian assistance just to survive 

“The vast majority of people living here still need humanitarian assistance, and the social services are basically non-existent”, explained Slente to WBUR’s Here & Now. “This is a country that’s starting from scratch rebuilding itself”.  

DRC has been able to expand its humanitarian programming in Syria since the fall of the Assad-led government, as access has markedly improved, both in terms of physical access and bureaucratic impediments. Currently, training deminers for the removal of explosive ordinance is one of DRC’s main tasks. Syria is highly contaminated with unexploded landmines, a severe risk to populations that has already claimed lives. Towns, neighbourhoods and villages must be cleared as a precondition for people to be able to safely return to Syria.  

But the UN humanitarian response plan for Syria is only 33.5% funded. This funding gap poses a significant obstacle to the reconstruction effort.  

The international community has sustained support for conflict-affected and displaced Syrians over the past 15 years, undergoing the task of hosting refugees in neighbouring countries and in countries across Europe. And Slente now urges those parties “not to grow weary of the situation”, but “to harvest that investment by having patience”.  

“Syria is not ready for mass returns”. This has been Slente’s consistent message to the international community over the past year, which she reaffirmed in an interview with Radio France Internationale earlier this month.  

Yet millions have returned to Syria since the fall of the Assad-led government. Slente met with some of these returnees in the outskirts of Damascus, and while some have been motivated by a desire to contribute to the reconstruction of Syria, for many others, the move back to Syria wasn’t a matter of choice. 

“I’ve talked with many people in rural Damascus who felt pushed to return due to the poverty level that they were living under in the neighbouring countries where they were hosted; they faced a lack of jobs, income and opportunity. But the level of destruction they are returning to is immense. We hear stories of people moving back into neighbourhoods that are basically debris”, shared Slente with RFI.   

Safe and dignified returns to Syria will take time; it is glaringly clear that now is not that moment.  

Slente emphasized: “To build a country where there is hope, where people can return safely, where people can rebuild their lives, will also require patience and economic support from the international community for yet a number of years.” 

The policy narrative in Europe and the global north is increasingly that Syria is a safe country for return. This is contrary to the plain evidence on the ground. It is contrary to the experience of the returnee mother, recounted to Slente in the outskirts of Damascus, who survived over a decade of displacement only to lose her son to an unexploded landmine. It is contrary to the masses of Syrians now facing life-threatening hardship in an unrecognisable place. It is contrary to the most fundamental humanitarian principles.  

Slente’s message to European countries and to countries in the global North is as follows: “If Syrian refugees are pushed away in massive numbers from hosting countries, I think the global north runs the risk of replacing one refugee with a new refugee, because many of the people who come back here and find such a dire situation on the ground want to, and try to, redisplace themselves, because they simply cannot find a way to survive here.”  

Returns must be safe, voluntary and dignified; right now, with two thirds of the population reliant on humanitarian aid to survive, those conditions cannot be met.