Syrian refugees can only return to their homes

Damascus wants to repatriate millions, but it must guarantee their safety, security and property

Now that the conflict in Syria is entering its closing chapter after more than seven years of unprecedented murder, mayhem and misery for millions, the regime in Damascus is considering the issues of its displaced people.

More than five million have fled the broken nation, seeking relief and respite beyond its borders, dispersed in a desperate diaspora, while millions more within are displaced and domiciled where there is any level of safety and sanctuary. Now, the government of President Bashar Al Assad has established a coordination committee to attempt to repatriate its dispersed people, where roughly half of those who left now live in camps in Turkey, while more are split between Lebanon and Jordan. The rest have been blown to the corners of the globe by winds of fear and too few welcoming arms.

The Syrian regime has little if any credibility when it comes to the repatriation of those who fled its security forces, its barrel bombs, its starvation, its chemical attacks, its allies, its Iranian proxies, as families fled with but the clothes on their backs.

If the regime is serious about repatriation, then it must work with the United Nations and other humanitarian agencies who have borne the brunt of this crisis for so long. For too long too, Jordan and Lebanon have creaked under the strain of so many who needed shelter and sustenance, safety and security — and they must be unburdened as Syrians return home.

Indeed, Syrians can only return once their safety and security there too is assured — in their rightful homes, villages, town and cities that they fled in the first instance.