Celine Schmitt, spokesperson for the UN High Commissioner for Refugees Syria office, speaks during an interview with Xinhua in Damascus, Syria, Aug. 14, 2025. Over 2.3 million Syrians have returned home since Dec. 8, 2024, a UN refugee agency official said Thursday, noting that returnees face critical shortages of housing and livelihoods, with many finding homes destroyed or damaged.(Photo by Monsef Memari/Xinhua)
DAMASCUS, Aug. 14 (Xinhua) -- Over 2.3 million Syrians have returned home since Dec. 8, 2024, a UN refugee agency official said Thursday, noting that returnees face critical shortages of housing and livelihoods, with many finding homes destroyed or damaged.
The returnees included more than 750,000 refugees coming from Türkiye, Lebanon, Jordan, Egypt and Iraq, and over 1.6 million internally displaced Syrians, Celine Schmitt, spokesperson for the UN High Commissioner for Refugees Syria office, told Xinhua.
Those returnees cited improved safety and a desire to reunite with families as primary motivations, Schmitt noted, adding that "one of the huge challenges mentioned by the returnees is access to housing."
"They also need an income, an employment, a livelihood activity. They are telling us, 'We don't want humanitarian assistance. What we want is to be able to work, to have an income, and to build our future in Syria,'" she said.
She said restoring civil documentation is also urgent, as the lack of identity documents prevents children from enrolling officially in schools.
Schmitt also called for sanctions relief to enable investment and funding, and urged stronger links between "immediate" humanitarian aid and "a longer-term plan." ■
