Number of Syrian refugees going home from Jordan, Lebanon falling

By Muhammet Tarhan

ANKARA (AA) - The number of Syrian refugees going home from neighboring Lebanon and Jordan has fallen despite the Assad regime's 2019 agreements with those countries, according to analysts.

The Omran Center for Strategic Studies, a think tank based in Istanbul, Türkiye, said: “In 2019, 52,000 refugees were repatriated whereas only 10,000-20,000 returned to their homeland in 2020-2022.”

An Omran report added: “The economic situation and security in Syria are among the reasons why Syrian refugees in Lebanon and Jordan do not want to return to their country despite their poor living standards.”

Armed conflicts between the Assad regime and opposition groups started in 2012.

Lebanon hosts around 1.5 million Syrian refugees, about 900,000 of whom are registered by the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).

Jordan, which shares a 375-kilometer (233-mile) border with Syria, hosts approximately 1.4 million Syrians, nearly half of them registered as refugees by the UNHCR.

According to the UNHCR, 6.6 million Syrians had to leave the country, which before 2011 had a population of around 22-23 million.

Türkiye hosts some 3.7 million Syria refugees, more than any country in the world. Türkiye has worked to stabilize border regions in Syria not under regime control to enable Syrians' voluntary resettlement.

Most of the refugees in Lebanon and Jordan suffer from tough living conditions, especially with the ongoing Lebanese economic crisis as well as the global economic crisis.

*Ikram Imane Kouachi contributed to this report