© UNHCR/Hameed Maarouf
Syria
Syrian centenarian leads his family home
Great-grandfather Jassim is one of over 500,000 Syrians who have returned home from neighboring countries, determined to rebuild despite ongoing challenges.
Syria
Great-grandfather Jassim is one of over 500,000 Syrians who have returned home from neighboring countries, determined to rebuild despite ongoing challenges.
At over 100 years old, Jassim has witnessed a lifetime of change in Syria, but nothing could prepare him for the horror and heartbreak of conflict. In 2013, as fighting engulfed his village near the city of Al-Qusayr in western Syria, a shell landed near his house, killing three of his children.
“I remember them every single day and cry for them,” he said, his voice reedy with age. “You raise your children hoping to see them … bringing life to your home. Now they’re gone.”
Jassim – whose ID puts him at 103 years old – fled Syria to Lebanon with his surviving family, including grown-up children and grandchildren from his first marriage and his second wife and their children. They found safety in an informal settlement near Baalbek in Lebanon’s Beqaa Valley, but life as refugees was harsh. Winters were bitterly cold, summers unbearably hot, and the family struggled to pay the $75 monthly rent for the land on which their family tent was pitched.
As Syria’s crisis dragged on for nearly 14 years, this precarious existence was the only option available to Jassim and his family. But that all changed in December 2024 with the overthrow of the Assad regime, which allowed Jassim to plan a return home that he'd feared would never come. The family finally moved back to their village, Al-Nahryieh, at the end of April.
“There was no safety here before for us to return, but thank God, now there is. So we came back,” Jassim said, kissing his hand in thanks. “Now we sleep peacefully, knowing that no one will attack us.”
On 15 May, the number of Syrians who have returned to the country since the fall of the previous government passed half a million – an average rate of 100,000 returns a month. But despite the palpable sense of hope among those arriving home, the challenges facing them – and the country as a whole – remain immense.
Years of conflict and crisis have shattered Syria’s economy and left homes and infrastructure in ruins, while the political and security situation remains fragile. For returning refugees, this means many have nowhere secure to live, they struggle to earn a living and are unable enrol their kids in school or access health care and other basic services.
“When we returned, we found our home destroyed,” says Jassim. “I felt like I was starting from zero.” For two days, he and his family cleared debris before pitching the same tent they had lived in during their time in Lebanon – this time, amid the ruins of their former home.
UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, is working with the interim authorities and other partners to assist Syrian refugees and internally displaced people (IDPs) now returning to their areas of origin. This includes help to rehabilitate and repair damaged homes, legal support to replace lost identity and property documents, and initiatives to help people earn a living.
But with the number of returning Syrians from neighbouring countries surpassing 500,000, in addition to some 1.2 million IDPs who have gone home in the past five months, UNHCR’s ability to help all those who need it is limited by brutal cuts to humanitarian funding, threatening the future recovery and stability of Syria and its people.
“Now we are reaching 500,000 returnees to Syria. They are starting their lives from scratch,” said Lujain Hasan, UNHCR Protection Associate in Syria. “They are in need of our support. It’s really a huge need now to try to reintegrate these returnees with their communities … [but] the main and basic challenge is the shortage of funds.”
Despite the many challenges, Hasan said, the overwhelming sense she gets when speaking to families returning home after so many years is one of optimism.
“When you are meeting returnees, you see the hope in their eyes. They want to rebuild – not only their houses but the whole country,” she said. “It’s really time to invest, to try to support these people to build a life again.”
For Jassim – who recently became a great-grandfather – despite the heartbreak and upheaval he has experienced in his twilight years, he is grateful to have now led his family back to where they belong.
“Your homeland is precious. This is our land, our country, our soul,” Jassim said, his voice growing louder. “I was born here, I grew up here … and I will die here.”
You can help Syrian returnees like Jassim rebuild their lives after years of crisis.