returned

Approximately 1.3 million Syrians returned from abroad in 2025, nearly three times the figure recorded the previous year, while a further two million internally displaced Syrians went back home, cutting the global Syrian refugee population from 6 million to 4.9 million.

On December 8, 2024, the al-Assad dynasty, which lasted 54 years, was removed from power by a rebel offensive.

The 14-year-long war led to one of the world’s largest migration crises, with some 6.8 million Syrians, about a third of the population, fleeing the country at the war’s peak in 2021, seeking refuge wherever they could find it.

More than half of these refugees, about 3.74 million, settled in neighbouring Turkiye, while 840,000 found refuge in Lebanon and 672,000 in Jordan.

Hiam told Al Jazeera she returned to Syria with her family after more than a decade of living in a host country. “The reason that pushed us to return was the high cost of living we were facing in the host country. We stayed there for 12 years, and it was a great hardship for us as refugees.”

We returned to Syria, thank God, but in the beginning it was difficult because we didn’t find homes or anything. Syria now is completely different from when we left. The return was very difficult at first – the scene was very hard for me.

“But thank God, I became stronger. The first period was very difficult, and at the beginning, it was hard to cope,” Hiam explained.

According to UNHCR data, some 556,00 Syrians returned from neighbouring Turkiye, 465,000 from Lebanon and 256,000 from Jordan.

More than seven in 10 returnees have reported improvements in security and freedom of movement in Syria, according to the UNHCR. Almost three-quarters of Syrian refugees abroad have also said they would eventually like to return home.

Returns in 2026 reached 549,800 by mid-May, driven by deteriorating conditions in Lebanon.

Katie Strick swapped London for Australia, only to find herself returning to the United Kingdom after just 18 months after discovering what life was really like Down Under

A woman who quit the United Kingdom for a sunny life in Australia has decided to move back after realising what life Down Under is truly like. Katie Strick and her partner spent 18 months in Australia before making the decision to move back home.

Katie says she made the decision to swap south London for Sydney after striking up a long-distance relationship with a former university friend. Writing in The Times, she admits the chance to join him in his beachside flat “wasn’t a hard sell”.

With the extension to the age bracket for the working holiday visa being moved from 30 to 35, Katie admits she felt the time was right. She found herself surrounded by “young, free twenty and thirtysomethings” in the Manly area.

But after a year-and-a-half, Katie found herself heading back to London. Her first struggle, she says, was the rental market in Sydney.

She found the cost of a flat is around the same in Australia as London. She also admits “friends and family naturally rank highly when I list the reasons for coming back”.

Katie however says the reasons for the move were much more than that. She wrote: “The reasons are rarely sexy: green space, quality of the press, a low risk of shark attacks and being a short train ride from my parents’ home town don’t quite have the same ring as living next to the beach when you shout them across a pub — but they mattered more than I expected.”

She acknowledges that Australia has “more sunshine” as well as “happier, healthier, more outdoorsy people,” but found herself missing the cobbled streets, country pubs, and British humour. She concedes it’s “hard not to miss those things” when you are “a 24-hour flight away”.

She says the Middle East conflict has also led to a “sense of uncertainty” for Brits flying from Australia. Dubai, once a popular layover, became embroiled in the conflict in March when it was struck by Iran.

Katie expected some “pushback” from her friends in Australia, but admits she was taken aback by the level of confusion from people back home too. She says many joked she would regret it when her boyfriend is “conscripted” or would be making another U-turn soon enough.

While she says it can seem difficult to say “exactly what you feel far away from,” she says “you do”. She accepts she has a “sense of day-to-day belonging” from visiting grandparents or meeting a friend’s baby, things that can’t be replicated through FaceTime.

Having moved back to London, Katie has however found herself wondering if she made a mistake. She recalls one moment she was catcalled by a drunk man at Clapham Junction, and dodging crowds in Soho.

On the other hand, she says there have been “moments of pure nostalgia” as she strolled through her favourite London park on a spring evening, or the appreciation she has for the NHS and architecture of the UK. She says her partner will soon land back in the UK, meaning that she gets to experience the “rollercoaster of emotions” from her return all over again.

Katie isn’t the only Brit who has quit the UK for Australia and found themselves moving back. Manchester-born Jessica McMaster recently made the same move after finding “four problems” with life Down Under.

Jessica cited the cost of living, distance from loved ones, visa and work restrictions, and weather as reasons for her move. Jessica, who lived in Melbourne, said: “Sometimes it would rain for days and be really cold and dark.

“Summer lasted about six months, which was amazing, long, bright days, great cafés, runs by the beach, but people think it’s always 30-degree heat. Melbourne can have four seasons in one day. In winter it was cold and rainy, so at times it felt like being back in Manchester, but without your family and friends.”