Syrian refugee returns set to slow as donor support fades

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GENEVA, Dec 8 (Reuters) – More than 3 million Syrians have returned home since the collapse of Bashar al-Assad’s rule a year ago but a decline in global funding could deter others, the U.N. refugee agency said on Monday.

Some 1.2 million refugees in addition to 1.9 million internally displaced people have gone back home following the civil war that ended with Assad’s overthrow, but millions more are yet to return, according to UNHCR.

The agency said much more support was needed to ensure the trend continues.

“Syrians are ready to rebuild – the question is whether the world is ready to help them do it,” said UNHCR head Filippo Grandi. Over 5 million refugees remain outside Syria’s borders, mostly in neighbouring countries like Jordan and Lebanon.

RISK OF REVERSALS

Grandi told donors in Geneva last week that there was a risk that those Syrians who are returning might even reverse their course and come back to host states.

“Returns continue in fairly large numbers but unless we step up broader efforts, the risk of (reversals) is very real,” he said.

Overall, Syria’s $3.19 billion humanitarian response is 29% funded this year, according to U.N. data, at a time when donors like the United States and others are making major cuts to foreign aid across the board.

The World Health Organization sees a gap emerging as aid money drops off before national systems can take over.

As of last month, only 58% of hospitals were fully functional and some are suffering power outages, affecting cold-chain storage for vaccines.

“Returnees are coming back to areas where medicines, staff and infrastructure are limited – adding pressure to already thin services,” Christina Bethke, Acting WHO Representative in Syria, told reporters.

The slow pace of removing unexploded ordnance is also a major obstacle to recovery, said the aid group Humanity & Inclusion, which reported over 1,500 deaths and injuries in the last year. Such efforts are just 13% funded, it said.

Some aid officials say Syria is one of the first crises to be hit by aid funding cuts because the end of the war means it no longer counts as an emergency, eligible for priority funding.

Others may have held back as they wait to see if authorities under President Ahmed al-Sharaa make good on promises of reform and accountability, including for massacres of the Alawite minority in March, they say.

(Reporting by Emma Farge; Editing by Aidan Lewis)