NAN-F-45
Displacement
Geneva, Aug. 11, 2017 (Reuters/NAN) The UN migration agency on Friday said that more than 600,000 Syrians returned to their homes in the first seven months of 2017, nearly as many as in 2016.
However, they are still outnumbered by those freshly displaced.
“Many went back to their areas of origin to check on property or because they had been in places where the economy and other conditions were deteriorating.
“The returns are not confirmed as voluntary, safe or sustainable,’’ IOM spokeswoman Olivia Headon told a briefing, the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) said.
About 67 per cent of the returns had been to Aleppo province where the rebel-held eastern part of the city was retaken by the Syrian Government in December, according to IOM.
“Most of the 602,759 Syrians who returned to their homes between January and July had been uprooted within their war-torn homeland, with the other 16 per cent returning from Turkey, Lebanon, Jordan and Iraq.
“The number nearly matched the 685,662 people who returned during 2016.
“An estimated 808,661 people have been newly displaced this year, many for the second or third time,’’ Headon said.
In all, more than six million people presently remain displaced within Syria. (Reuters/NAN)
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Edited by Celine-Damilola Oyewole/Ese E. Ekama