Syrian centenarian leads his family home as returns reach half a million
Syrian centenarian leads his family home as returns reach half a million
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, allowing Jassim to plan a return home that he feared may 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.”
Jassim (centre) and several generations of his family sit in the tent they erected on the site of their destroyed home.
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.
It was a similar reality for Jassim and his family when they arrived back in their village several weeks ago. “When we returned, we found our home destroyed,” he said. “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.
The Mukhtar, or local leader, of Al-Nahryieh and two other neighbouring villages, Ahmed Al Housaine, said that 1,200 families have returned to the area since December.
“These are more than 10,000 people in three small villages, and the needs are huge. The houses and the schools are destroyed. There is no health centre, no pharmacy, no doctor,” Al Housaine said. “UNHCR’s community centre, which is 5 kilometres away, is helping us a lot, trying to fulfil our needs. UNHCR also provided solar streetlights and rehabilitated 65 houses.”
“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.”
Jassim speaks with UNHCR Protection Associate Lujain Hasan outside his tent in Al-Nahryieh village, Homs governorate, Syria.
Yet, 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.”
