When Bashar al-Assad’s regime collapsed on December 8, 2024, many Syrians thought it marked the end of one of the darkest chapters in their history. Families in makeshift camps across Syria’s northwest began to dream again of going home to rebuild, to reclaim lost lives, to finally pack away the tents that became their only shelter through years of conflict.
The new Syrian government, led by President Ahmad Al-Sharaa, promised that returning displaced people would be a national priority. The slogan was simple: “Syria for all its people.”
But seven months on, the reality on the ground tells a harder story. Millions are still stranded in northern camps, living among ruins or stuck in crowded shelters, caught between destroyed hometowns and an economy too broken to sustain them.
According to the UN refugee agency (UNHCR), around 3.4 million Syrians remain displaced within Syria’s northwest. Nearly 2 million of them still live in more than 1,500 camps and informal settlements in Idlib and Aleppo provinces.
According to UNHCR spokesperson Celine Schmitt, the desire to return is especially strong in Idlib province, where about two-thirds of displaced families say they want to go back, particularly to towns like Maarrat al-Numan and Jabal Semaan.
Read also: UN: Over 2 Million Syrians Return Home Since the Beginning of the Year
Schmitt explained that if large-scale returns happen, they could trigger a major demographic shift. In some areas, populations could swell from just 3,000 residents to over 130,000, putting huge strain on already crumbling infrastructure and limited basic services like water, electricity, and health systems.
Closed Camps Don’t Mean Rebuilt Homes
Ramzi Kalzi, who works with the Syrian relief group Amal for Relief and Development, says some camps are shutting down, but that doesn’t always mean families are going home.
“Many people are just moving from small, poorly serviced camps to larger ones with better aid,” he explains. “Only a few have gone back to their villages, mostly to places that are partly liveable like parts of Saraqib or rural Idlib.”
He adds: “Everyone wants to go home, but right now, going back often means living in a ruined house with no water, no power, no work – so people stay.”
Partial Returns, Limited Options
Abdul Salam Mohammad Al-Youssef, who runs the ‘Al-Yasmin’ camp near Idlib city, says half the families in his camp have left since Assad’s fall. But many haven’t returned to their original towns; they’ve just found other camps that offer more stable conditions.
“The biggest barrier isn’t security anymore; it’s that there’s nothing to go back to,” he says. “Some people come back and find just rubble.”
While the new transitional government has visited camps and promised help, many in the region feel abandoned by the international community. “People here feel the ‘December victory’ hasn’t reached them yet,” he says.
Read also: Thousands of Displaced People in Northern Syria Left Without Medical Care
Aid Cuts, Sanctions, and Unrealistic Promises
Analysts say the biggest hurdle is Syria’s crippled infrastructure and economy. Researcher Radwan Al-Atrash, speaking from Idlib, says the issue of displaced people cannot be separated from the wider question of rebuilding the country.
“The towns and villages these families are supposed to return to are completely destroyed; they’re simply uninhabitable in their current state,” Al-Atrash says. “The support provided by aid organizations right now barely covers transportation costs, which is nowhere near enough to make real returns possible.”
He told +963 that the main obstacles to return are “fundamentally administrative and institutional,” tied to an economy and investment climate that remain paralyzed by international sanctions.
He concludes, “Some people have gone back to live in their ruined homes; others have taken their tents and returned to the rubble of their villages. So yes, returns have begun, but whether they truly succeed depends on how seriously the international community supports this transition.”
A Government Without Tools – and Missing Steps
In contrast, Syrian political activist Raqia Al-Shaaer offers a far more pessimistic view of the transitional government’s ability to bring real change for the displaced. Speaking to +963, she says, “The government lacks both political and logistical tools. It doesn’t seem capable of rebuilding devastated areas or providing a safe environment. Even people who were never displaced are still struggling with failing services and livelihoods.”
She adds that since the fall of the Assad regime, “state institutions have remained mostly paralyzed, working at a bare minimum. The transitional government was supposed to build a competent administrative system, free of favoritism and sectarian bias, but the opposite has happened. From the National Dialogue Conference to the constitutional declaration and then the appointments that followed, all were marred by non-professional standards that raised doubts about how serious this government really is.”
She concludes, “So far, displaced people haven’t seen real change, and they see no compelling reason to return home. The problem isn’t their will to go back, it’s the reality that hasn’t changed on the ground.”
Meanwhile, on June 7, the Syrian government announced the closure of the Rukban camp – a desolate desert settlement on the border triangle between Syria, Jordan, and Iraq in the far southeast of the country.
Rukban had housed around 10,000 Syrians for years under dire conditions, a symbol of the protracted humanitarian disaster inside Syria’s borders. Syria’s Minister of Emergency and Disaster Management, Raed Al-Saleh, called the closure “the end of one of the harshest human tragedies faced by Syrian IDPs.” He expressed hope that dismantling the camp would mark the start of broader returns from other camps, allowing displaced families to “go home with dignity and safety.”
Syrian Information Minister Hamza Mustafa described Rukban as a “triangle of death” that witnessed “the cruelty of siege and starvation, where the former regime abandoned people to face a grim fate in a barren desert,” according to the official SANA news agency.
Elsewhere, Syria’s Autonomous Administration in the northeast continues efforts to empty Al-Hol camp – notorious for its complex mix of Syrian, Iraqi, and foreign residents, including families of former ISIS fighters. On June 14, Shekhmus Ahmad, head of the Administration’s IDP office, told +963 that the removal of Syrian families is ongoing in coordination with Damascus and UNHCR.
However, he noted that no final decision has been made yet for other Syrians at Al-Hol. “The reason,” he said, “is the absence of an official agreement with the Syrian government on their return.”
