A month since the fall of the Assad regime, more than 125,000 refugees have returned to Syria “full of hope after years of exile”, only to find themselves confronted by desperate conditions, UN humanitarians warned on Thursday.
Leading calls for the international community to “move from words to action” to help the country’s most vulnerable returnees urgently, the UN refugee agency, UNHCR, said that many families have little shelter and few economic prospects.
“In recent weeks, there has been talk in high-level international circles of the need for ‘early recovery’ and ‘rebuilding,’” said Gonzalo Vargas Llosa, UNHCR Representative in Syria, a day after a Security Council meeting charting the way ahead for a peaceful future for all Syrians. “But until we move from words to action, for many returnees…their new life in Syria will unfortunately mean sleeping surrounded by plastic sheeting.”
