‘We tasted the horrors of war’: Stories of refugees who returned home

Approximately 1.3 million Syrians returned from abroad in 2025, nearly three times the figure recorded the previous year, while a further two million internally displaced Syrians went back home, cutting the global Syrian refugee population from 6 million to 4.9 million.On December 8, 2024, the al-Assad dynasty, which lasted 54 years, was removed from power by a rebel offensive.The 14-year-long war led to one of the world’s largest migration crises, with some 6.8 million Syrians, about a third of the population, fleeing the country at the war’s peak in 2021, seeking refuge wherever they could find it.More than half of these refugees, about 3.74 million, settled in neighbouring Turkiye, while 840,000 found refuge in Lebanon and 672,000 in Jordan.Hiam told Al Jazeera she returned to Syria with her family after more than a decade of living in a host country. "The reason that pushed us to return was the high cost of living we were facing in the host country. We stayed there for 12 years, and it was a great hardship for us as refugees."We returned to Syria, thank God, but in the beginning it was difficult because we didn’t find homes or anything. Syria now is completely different from when we left. The return was very difficult at first - the scene was very hard for me."But thank God, I became stronger. The first period was very difficult, and at the beginning, it was hard to cope," Hiam explained.Syrian families living in Turkiye walk towards the Cilvegozu border gate to cross into Syria, after Syrian rebels ousted President Bashar al-Assad on December 13, 2024, in Cilvegozu, Turkiye [Burak Kara/Getty Images]According to UNHCR data, some 556,00 Syrians returned from neighbouring Turkiye, 465,000 from Lebanon and 256,000 from Jordan.More than seven in 10 returnees have reported improvements in security and freedom of movement in Syria, according to the UNHCR. Almost three-quarters of Syrian refugees abroad have also said they would eventually like to return home.Returns in 2026 reached 549,800 by mid-May, driven by deteriorating conditions in Lebanon.