Khaberni - About a million Syrian refugees have returned to their country from Turkey and Lebanon in recent months, amid an acceleration of voluntary returns to Syria, according to the countries' announcements.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Tuesday that the number of Syrians who have returned from Turkey alone since the fall of the Assad regime in late 2024 totaled 580,000, affirming that their safe and dignified return will accelerate as a climate of stability is established in Syria.
While participating in the 16th Conference of Turkish Ambassadors in the capital Ankara, Erdogan emphasized that Ankara is exerting efforts in Syria similar to those made for the Gaza Strip.
He mentioned that under the leadership of President Ahmad Al-Shar', Syria has made significant progress in a short time towards reintegrating with the international community.
In Lebanon, the Lebanese Minister of Social Affairs Hanin al-Sayyed announced in a statement on X on Monday the return of 380,000 Syrian refugees to their country since July of last year, as part of the implementation of the safe return plan launched by the Lebanese government.
She noted that about 74,000 others expressed their desire to return before the end of this year.
She added that "this progress in the plan's path reflects the Lebanese government's firm commitment to ensuring a sustainable return of displaced persons to Syria, and confirms the effectiveness of the existing partnership with the relevant national and international entities."
In July of last year, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees and the International Organization for Migration launched a program for the organized voluntary return to support Syrians in Lebanon who decide to return voluntarily to Syria, in a dignified and safe manner.
It is noteworthy that Turkey and Lebanon were the main destinations for the largest waves of Syrian displacement since the Syrian revolution began in 2011.
In September of last year, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees said that there are still more than 7 million internally displaced persons in Syria, while more than 4.5 million others live abroad as refugees, urging the international community to support the country's reconstruction to encourage the return of refugees.
According to the UN, Lebanon hosts the largest number of refugees per capita in the world, with estimates indicating that in the previous years, the country hosted 1.5 million Syrian refugees and more than 13,000 refugees of other nationalities, with 90% of the Syrian refugees living in extreme poverty.
Turkey, meanwhile, hosts about 2.5 million Syrian refugees, and the number of Syrian refugees there peaked in 2021, when it reached more than 3.7 million refugees, before subsequently decreasing, according to migration administration data.
