Syrian refugees hopeful about returning home, but humanitarian agencies warn against rushing back

Every night for half of her life, Ghena Ali Mostafa has spent the moments before sleep envisioning what she'd do first if she ever had the chance to step back into the Syrian home she fled as a girl. She imagined herself laying down and pressing her lips to the ground, and melting into a hug from the grandmother she left behind. She thought about her father, who disappeared when she was 13.

It was all beyond the realm of possibility as her teenage years and early 20s ticked past. Then, after rebels toppled the brutal Bashar al-Assad regime, those thoughts of home snapped back within reach.

"Today I have a country that I can go back and build. Today I do not need to be a refugee anymore," Mostafa said in an interview from her apartment in Toronto on Monday.

"Today I have a home and this home is waiting for me."

WATCH | Mostafa speaks about her hope for the future: 

'Today I do not need to be a refugee anymore'

1 day ago

Duration 2:12

Ghena Ali Mostafa, 24, said she has dreamed of returning to Syria ever since she fled the country as a child. With the fall of the Al-Assad regime, she said she finally feels she has a chance to travel back.

Mostafa, 24, is one of an untold number of Syrian refugees contemplating travelling back to Syria after the fall of the Assad regime on Sunday ended 13 years of civil war and decades more under his family's violent dictatorship.

Elated families say they're revelling in their first tangible hope of going home, but the leader of a Canadian support foundation says they're also watching closely to see where the country's political, economic and humanitarian situation goes from here.

'I am beyond happy'

Mostafa left Syria with her sister and mother for their own safety after her father, who had rebelled against the regime, was "forcefully disappeared" along with thousands of other government opponents in 2013. The three women lived as refugees in Turkey and Jordan before moving to Canada in 2018. 

They are still doing "everything" to find out what happened to her father and still have family in Syria. Mostafa phoned them this weekend and heard them speak freely, without fear, for the first time since she left.

"I never thought I will witness this moment in my 20s. I thought maybe my kids or maybe my grandkids will witness this moment. But for me to witness this moment, for me to have a home that I can go to, for me to have a hope that I could be reunited with my dad," she said, visibly shaking. 

"I am beyond happy and I am beyond overwhelmed."

More than six million Syrians became refugees during a decade of civil war, according to the United Nations. More than 100,000 of those people have landed in Canada since November 2015.

The rebel offensive that ultimately drove Assad from power on Sunday has prompted scores of people to start making their way back, crowding some border crossings with neighbouring countries like Turkey, Lebanon and Jordan.

Marwa Khobieh, executive director of the Syrian Canadian Foundation, said she believes many families in Canada will be anxiously thinking about returning to see their loved ones and begin rebuilding the country — but said it's not yet safe enough to consider a permanent move.

"I think most of them would like to visit. In terms of moving? Not yet, because Syria is not stable yet and everyone still has a lot of concerns about the future and what unfolds," said Khobieh, an activist who hasn't been back to Syria since leaving for her own safety in 2012.

Rebuilding the nation will be a massive task. Cities have been flattened, the countryside has been depopulated, the economy has been wiped out by international sanctions and millions of refugees still live in camps after one of the biggest displacements of the modern day.

Many refugees won't have physical homes left in Syria.

WATCH | Long lines form at Turkey border crossing as hundreds wait to get into Syria: 

'I'm going to my country,' says Syrian at border with Turkey

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Duration 1:00

Long lines formed in Hatay, Turkey, on Monday as hundreds of people waited to get into Syria after longtime ruler Bashar al-Assad was ousted by a coalition of Islamist rebel groups.

Khobieh said they are resilient, but will need support from the international and humanitarian community to rebuild the infrastructure and heal from the collective trauma.

The UN agency mandated to provide international protection and humanitarian assistance to refugees, UNHCR, conducted a survey in 2023 to see how many refugees might want to go back to Syria. It found 56 per cent had hopes to return one day, but only 1.1 per cent planned on doing so within the next year.

Before Assad was overthrown, UNHCR had maintained for years that Syria was unsafe and said it would not facilitate mass returns for refugees unless key protection conditions are in place. A statement Tuesday said refugees must not be forced back prematurely.

WATCH | The search for survivors at the Saydnaya prison near Damascus: 

Rescuers, relatives search Syrian prison, hoping to free detainees

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Duration 2:01

CBC’s Margaret Evans describes the search for survivors at the Saydnaya prison near Damascus. Syria’s civil defence organization, known as the White Helmets, says it has searched the prison and found hidden prison cells. Many of the prisoners held there would have been political prisoners and dissidents.

"They are considering how safe Syria will be and how far their rights will be respected before they can make an informed voluntary decision to return home. They must be given the space to do so without any pressure," said UNHCR spokesperson Shabia Mantoo.

The 1951 Refugee Convention said refugees no longer needs protection when the circumstances that caused the person to become a refugee "have ceased to exist," but that change needs to be "fundamental and durable."

Human Rights Watch, which has also warned repeatedly in the past that Syria is not safe for returns, issued a statement Monday saying the dictatorship's collapse represents a seismic change.

"The fall of Bashar al-Assad's government offers Syrians an unprecedented opportunity to chart a new future built on justice, accountability, and respect for human rights," wrote Lama Fakih, Middle East director at Human Rights Watch.

'We are all waiting to see what happens next'

Syria's new interim leader, Mohammed Al-Bashir, announced on Tuesday he was taking charge of the country as caretaker prime minister with the backing of the former rebels who brought down Assad. Earlier in the day, banks in the Syrian capital reopened for the first time.

Like Mostafa, Khadija Alsaeid is adamant she'll go back to the country she left when she was nine.

"As much as I love Canada, as much as I love the Rocky Mountains — they're my favourite place to be in — I would love to go back one day. It's my city back there. It's my country," Alsaeid, 18, said at a celebratory rally in Calgary on Sunday. 

Amir Fattal is also eager to go back, but keeping an eye on the government transition. He fled Aleppo in 2016 and now lives in Oakville, Ont. with his wife and children.

"We are all waiting to see what happens next and who's going to lead the country, but for sure, I'm ready to add anything I can do to my country," he told CBC News Network.

WATCH | Fattal says his family is watching transition carefully: 

Syrian refugee in Ontario 'ready' to go back and help nation rebuild

2 days ago

Duration 2:18

Amir Fattal, who came to Canada from Aleppo in 2016, said he's watching the aftermath of President Bashar Al-Assad's fall very closely to see how it might shape his plans to return home.

Mostafa, too, knows there will be factors to worry about before she can travel back safely. But for now, she's soaking up the kind of hope she's hasn't known in the entirety of her adult life.

"I am terrified of what's coming next. But I know that Syria is free and my dad is happy and will be happy with us," she said.

"Me, my kids, Syrians … we are going to celebrate this day forever."