By: Shaza Al Muzayen | Editor: Sakina Mohamed | Designer: Ummul Syuhaida Othman
KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 6 (Bernama) -- Syria’s refugee crisis, one of the largest in modern history, has gained renewed attention with the transition to a new administration.
Following the collapse of the Assad-led government on December 8, 2024, millions of Syrians displaced over the past 13 years face uncertain futures. While some see the change as an opportunity to return, many remain concerned about ongoing instability, economic uncertainty, and unresolved security threats.
For Syria’s six million refugees, the question looms: Can they ever truly return home safely?
Syria’s long-stagnant war reignited on November 27, 2024, when an opposition offensive led by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham seized the city of Aleppo, overwhelming government forces stationed there.
After Aleppo fell, the opposition quickly captured the city of Hama before storming Damascus, Syria’s capital.
On December 8, news broke that Syria’s President, Bashar al-Assad, had fled the country, marking the end of the Ba’ath party’s 61-year rule.
(The Syrian Ba’ath Party had been Syria’s ruling political party since 1963.)
For the first time in over a decade, Syrians dared to hope that the war, which had torn their lives apart, might finally come to an end.
Syria’s civil war, which began in 2011, has led to massive levels of displacement and death among the Syrian population.
According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), there are 6.25 million Syrian refugees registered worldwide as of 2024, in addition to 7.41 million internally displaced persons (IDPs) still within Syria.
The UNHCR also reports that as of 2024, there are 163,175 registered Syrian asylum-seekers, many of whom are awaiting decisions on their claims in countries across Europe and beyond.
At the same time, Syria’s population has been deeply affected. The World Health Organization reported Syria’s population at 22.9 million in 2011, dropping to 19.2 million by 2016 due to war-related deaths and displacement.
By 2024, the figure rebounded to 24.7 million, reflecting both population movements and births.
Hundreds of thousands of Syrians have been killed throughout the war.
In 2021, the UNHCR estimated that the decade of war had claimed 306,887 lives. By 2024, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights placed the death toll at a staggering 617,910 people killed over 13 years of war.
The renewed fighting in late 2024 triggered fresh waves of displacement within Syria.
More than 800,000 people have been newly displaced internally, particularly in the governorates of Idlib, Hama, and Rural Damascus. Movement of Syrian refugees returning from neighbouring Lebanon and Türkiye have also been reported. Thousands of Syrians have also fled Syria into Lebanon.
This crisis is further compounded by the humanitarian strain triggered by Israel’s bombing of Lebanon. More than half a million people fled from Lebanon to Syria between late September and late November to escape Israeli airstrikes, according to the UNHCR.
Of these, 60 percent were returning Syrians, while the remainder were Lebanese seeking safety.
Following a ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon on November 27, approximately 40,000 Lebanese refugees returned home.
As of 2024, Türkiye hosts nearly half of Syria’s refugee population (3,112,683). It is followed by Lebanon (774,697) and Germany (716,728).
Other significant host countries include Jordan (628,135), Iraq (286,099), Egypt (156,465), Austria (97,939), Sweden (86,956), the Netherlands (65,622), and Greece (50,759).
The collapse of Assad’s government has led several European nations to pause or suspend asylum applications for Syrian refugees. These include Austria, Belgium, Croatia, Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Norway, Sweden, and the United Kingdom.
Officials from the United Nations urged countries to continue safeguarding the rights of Syrian asylum-seekers despite the sudden regime change.
Shabia Mantoo, Global Spokesperson for UNHCR, emphasised that Syrian asylum-seekers awaiting decisions on their claims should retain the same rights as other asylum-seekers, particularly regarding reception conditions. She warned that forcibly returning asylum-seekers would violate non-refoulement obligations.
International rights groups have also voiced concern.
Amnesty International (AI) called for an immediate reversal of asylum suspensions, emphasising that the safety of asylum-seekers should not be sacrificed for political interests.
“The safety and agency of people seeking asylum must be placed at the heart of decision making and not sacrificed to the rabid, anti-refugee politics currently gripping Europe,” said Eve Geddie, Director of AI’s European Institutions Office, in a statement.
Similarly, Human Rights Watch warned against involuntary returns. Its Director of Refugee and Migrant Rights Division, Bill Frelick, wrote:
“Despite joyous images of Syrian refugees going home, no government should be sending or planning to send people back involuntarily.
“Every citizen has the right to return to their home country, safe or not. But because one refugee chooses to repatriate is no justification to forcibly return another who remains fearful, as many Syrian refugees do, especially given the country’s unstable and possibly dangerous conditions.”
-- BERNAMA