War drives Syrian displaced to return from Lebanon

The International Organization for Migration revealed in a report issued by the "Displacement Tracking Matrix" a notable decline in displacement rates from Lebanon to Syria following the announcement of a ceasefire agreement in Lebanon on April 17 last.

The report stated that approximately thirty-three thousand eight hundred and eighty-seven people left Syria returning to Lebanon since the displacement wave peaked with the registration of one hundred and fifty-three thousand one hundred and eighty-seven arrivals on the twenty-seventh of last month, as the report documented in the period between March 2 last and May 25 current the arrival of one hundred and nineteen thousand two hundred people to more than one thousand two hundred and thirty-eight residential sites distributed across various Syrian governorates.

Syrian citizens constituted the vast majority of these at a rate reaching ninety-nine percent, while the proportion of Lebanese arrivals was limited to one percent of the total displaced.

Cumulative data on border movements until the date of May 25 current showed the registration of approximately three hundred and sixty-six thousand seven hundred and nineteen crossing movements through the four official entry points linking Syria and Lebanon, where ninety-seven percent of these movements belong to Syrian citizens compared to three percent for Lebanese citizens, in addition to the crossing of two thousand two hundred and eleven additional Lebanese citizens from Syria towards Jordanian territory during the same period.

The international organization indicated, quoting local informants present on the ground, that some of the new arrivals found in the Eid al-Adha holiday an opportunity to assess the security and living conditions inside the country, concluding that there is an increasing desire among a large portion of them to return again to Lebanon due to the continued absence of job opportunities and the high cost of living in Syria.

How the returnees are distributed within Syrian territory

The return of these arriving families was not without social and living repercussions on the communities in which they settled, represented by increased pressure on the real estate market and the naturally scarce housing, which created problems related to securing suitable housing, along with increased pressure on water networks, healthcare services, and other basic services, coinciding with the notable decline in the volume of humanitarian aid provided by international organizations, which the United Nations explicitly announced it would reduce by half.

Data from the International Organization for Migration showed the distribution of individuals in the recorded arrival sites as follows: Idlib topped the list with 17,017 people, followed by Raqqa with 16,600, then Homs with 13,907, Aleppo with 12,415, Damascus with 12,335, Hama with 11,324, Hasakah with 11,276, Rural Damascus with 9,063, Daraa with 6,274, Deir ez-Zor with 5,757, Suwayda with 1,268, Latakia with 881, Tartus with 767, and finally Quneitra with 305 people.

The report indicated that sixty-four percent of the new arrivals reach reception areas under stable conditions, but thirty-six percent of them face ongoing challenges related to psychological and social pressures at a rate of seventy-three percent due to limited job and livelihood opportunities, followed by difficulties in accessing basic services at a rate of fifty-two percent, and problems of loss or damage to civil documents and identity cards at a rate of forty-two percent.

The report also indicated that the severity of risks and security concerns is linked to different areas, as Hasakah recorded the highest rate of concerns at one hundred percent, followed by Suwayda at seventy-nine percent, and Rural Damascus at sixty-one percent, especially with the recording of field security incidents such as a landmine explosion in Idlib governorate that killed three children and injured four others, creating a state of uncertainty among returning families.