The UNHCR in Jordan revealed that more than 190,000 registered Syrian refugees from Jordan have returned to their homeland since the fall of the former Syrian regime on December 8, 2024, until the beginning of May 2026.
UNHCR spokesman Yousef Taha told the "Voice of the Kingdom" program in Jordan that this year alone witnessed the return of 16,000 refugees, distributed over the first four months in similar proportions, with the month of January recording a peak of 4,500 returnees.
Taha pointed out that 58% of these people returned as families, while 46,000 of them left Zaatari and Azraq camps, while the vast majority (76%) preferred to return from Jordan's main urban areas and governorates.
UNHCR faces severe funding crisis
Despite the ongoing movement of returns, UNHCR is facing a severe funding crisis, with only $65 million of the $280 million required for its operations in Jordan available, leaving a financial deficit estimated at $215 million (76.8 per cent).
Taha explained that the cash assistance is granted according to precise criteria that include people with disabilities, large families (8 individuals or more), and critical cases, where 6,500 refugees benefited from financial grants amounting to $300 per family and 70 dinars per person, in conjunction with the provision of 10,000 buses to provide free transportation for returnees.
Taha announced that about 81,000 refugees are currently remaining in the Zaatari and Azraq camps, while the destinations of Syrian returnees are mainly distributed in the governorates of: Daraa, Homs, Damascus countryside, Aleppo, Damascus and Hama.
Refugees from the capital Amman, Irbid, Mafraq and Zarqa make up the largest mass of returnees from Jordan's urban areas, reflecting a shift in the desire to return among groups previously integrated into Jordan's host society.
660 thousand Sui returned from Turkey
In this context, the Turkish authorities reported that the number of Syrians returning from Turkey to Syria during the past 17 months is about 660 thousand people.
The Turkish Interior Ministry said in a statement that the data issued by the Minister of Interior, Mustafa Şevci, to the public includes the total numbers of voluntary returnees since 2016.
She said: "In this context, the number of Syrians who have voluntarily and safely returned from Turkey since 2016 until today has reached one million and 407 thousand and 568 Syrians.
According to the updated data of the Migration Department, the number of Syrians under temporary protection inside Turkey is 2,280,542 Syrians, and that after December 2024, 667,565 returned to Syria.
The Turkish Interior Ministry said that the data of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) indicates that 1,630,874 Syrians have returned to Syria in the rest of the region since December 8, 2024
The Ministry of Interior explained that given the distribution of the number of returnees by countries, Turkey tops the list with 639,995 returnees, stressing that the aforementioned information was obtained through the analysis of border crossings, reports of population movements, and various data sources, and that comparing and reporting data from different dates as if it were from the same period is a far from reality and misleading approach.