More Syrians returning home, still outnumbered by fresh displacements - U.N

Record ID: 906058

  • Title: More Syrians returning home, still outnumbered by fresh displacements - U.N
  • Date: 11th August 2017
  • Summary: GENEVA, SWITZERLAND (AUGUST 11, 2017) (REUTERS) UNITED NATIONS ENTRANCE UNITED NATIONS SIGN VARIOUS OF U.N. NEWS BRIEFING IN PROGRESS (SOUNDBITE) (English) INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATION FOR MIGRATION (IOM) SPOKESWOMAN, OLIVIA HEADON SAYING: "Over 600,000 displaced Syrians have returned home in the first seven months of this year, so that's from January to July 2017, 602,759 displaced Syrians returned home or to their areas of return." VARIOUS OF JOURNALISTS LISTENING (SOUNDBITE) (English) INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATION FOR MIGRATION (IOM) SPOKESWOMAN, OLIVIA HEADON SAYING: "The returns are not necessarily durable because there are not confirmed as voluntary, safe or sustainable. So Syria is not safe, the places where people return to are not equipped to deal with them. So humanitarian organisations can not consider organised returns as an option at this time and we are not encouraging people to return either." VARIOUS OF JOURNALISTS LISTENING (SOUNDBITE) (English) INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATION FOR MIGRATION (IOM) SPOKESWOMAN, OLIVIA HEADON SAYING: "While these returns increase, Syria continues to witness high rates of displacements. From January to July 2017 an estimated over 800,000 people were displaced, many for the second or even third time. Over six million people in total currently remain displaced within Syria." JOURNALISTS LISTENING NEWS BRIEFING IN PROGRESS
  • Embargoed: 25th August 2017 14:56
  • Keywords: Syria refugees migrants United Nations IOM Syrians returning home
  • Location: GENEVA, SWITZERLAND
  • City: GENEVA, SWITZERLAND
  • Country: Switzerland
  • Topics: Government/Politics,United Nations
  • Reuters ID: LVA0016TPQXC7
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: More than 600,000 Syrians returned to their homes in the first seven months of this year, nearly as many as in all of 2016, but they are still outnumbered by those freshly displaced, the U.N. migration agency said on Friday (August 11).
    Many went back to their areas of origin to check on property or because they had been in places where the economic and other conditions were deteriorating, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) said.
    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 percent returning from Turkey, Lebanon, Jordan and Iraq, IOM spokeswoman Olivia Headon said.
    The number nearly matched the 685,662 people who returned during all of 2016, she said, but added an estimated 808,661 people have been newly displaced this year.
    In all, more than 6 million people currently remain displaced within Syria.
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
  • Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2017. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
  • Usage Terms/Restrictions: None
Register