The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) announced that about 900 Syrian refugees have returned from Iraq to Syria since the beginning of 2026, stressing that the returns are taking place entirely voluntarily.
UNHCR explained on its official X account that returning Syrian refugees receive individual counseling and are considered options to ensure their decision to return is made of their own will.
Earlier, UNHCR said the total number of Syrian refugees and asylum seekers registered with the agency who voluntarily returned home from Iraq in 2025 reached 6,811 people.
Iraq hosts 346,066 refugees and asylum seekers, with Syrians making up nearly 88% of them, according to UNHCR data.
About 82% of refugees reside in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq, according to UNHCR, while the rest are distributed across central and southern Iraqi governorates.
Among those living in the region, 34% reside inside nine designated refugee camps, while 66% live in urban areas, particularly Erbil, followed by Duhok and then Sulaymaniyah.
Refugees outside the region are concentrated mainly in central and southern Iraq, especially in the capital, Baghdad.
Lilly Carlisle, spokesperson for UNHCR in Iraq, said in press statements that the number of Syrian refugees registered with the agency who returned from Iraq to Syria during 2025 was fewer than 7,000, describing the figure as low compared with return movements from neighboring countries such as Jordan, Lebanon, and Turkey.
Carlisle added that most Syrian refugees currently plan to stay in Iraq for an indefinite period, noting that UNHCR periodically conducts surveys to measure return intentions among Syrians living in Iraq.
She explained that a survey conducted by UNHCR in June 2024 showed that only 4% of Syrian refugees expressed a desire to return to Syria within the following 12 months, reflecting the majority’s current tendency to remain in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq.
UNHCR will continue providing support and services to Syrian refugees as long as they remain in Iraq, because large numbers of them do not consider current conditions suitable for returning to Syria, according to Carlisle.
Meanwhile, UNHCR spokesperson in Syria Céline Schmitt confirmed that more Syrian refugees want to return to their country, noting the return of 1.4 million refugees to Syria and nearly 2 million internally displaced people to their areas.
Schmitt told UN News: “What they tell us is that they want to return and reunite with their families because the reasons that forced them to flee no longer exist now.”
She noted that UNHCR supports refugees who decide to return, within its capacities and available funding in some priority areas, pointing to assistance in transportation and cash grants.
UNHCR has a network of about 79 community centers across Syria that provide protection assistance, which means first and foremost access to counseling related to civil documentation, while also working in the field of mental health support, according to Schmitt.
Among UNHCR’s aid priorities, according to Schmitt’s statements, are providing shelter for returnees, access to income, and livelihood support.
1.63 Million Syrians Have Returned to the Country
In this context, about 1.63 million Syrian refugees have returned to their country, most of them from neighboring countries, while the issue of returns from Germany remains outside the equation.
As of April 30, nearly 640,000 Syrians had returned from Turkey, about 630,000 from Lebanon, and about 285,000 from Jordan, according to figures from UNHCR.
The Syrian General Authority for Ports and Customs said on its official Facebook page on May 6 that the number of Syrians who voluntarily returned from neighboring countries to Syria from the liberation until the end of April 2026 reached about 1.211 million people.
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