Almost 2 million children have returned to their hometowns in Syria in the past 18 months - the largest voluntary movement of returnees globally - but many find their homes damaged, basic services collapsed and the land contaminated by explosive devices, Save the Children said.
SYRIA, 18 June 2026 - Almost 2 million children have returned to their hometowns in Syria in the past 18 months - the largest voluntary movement of returnees globally - but many find their homes damaged, basic services collapsed and the land contaminated by explosive devices, Save the Children said [1].
Ahead of World Refugee Day, the child rights organisation fears the large scale of returns creates the illusion that conditions are safe after the end of 14 years of conflict in December 2024, putting pressure on Syrians to return [2].
An estimated 953,000 children are among more than 1.6 million refugees who have returned since Syria’s political transition on 8 December 2024, according to latest UNHCR figures. Save the Children estimates that about 1.02 million children [3] internally displaced within Syria have also returned to their areas of origin.
As people return, 15.6 million people – nearly 70% of the population - remain in need of humanitarian assistance, including 7.5 million children [4]. Families are going back to communities where basic services, infrastructure and protection systems remain severely weakened due to conflict, economic collapse, and mass destruction.
A survey by Save the Children at the end of last year in 90 households found that children are returning to conditions that are unsafe and unliveable. Nearly two-thirds of families said they arrived back to find their homes damaged or destroyed. Almost the same number said their level of access to both water and electricity was low. [5]
Save the Children said returning families are living one shock away from being forced to move again. In the survey, three in four said a further deterioration in the economy would push them to leave and nearly two thirds said the same of a deterioration in security.
Adolescent girls face particular risks, including unsafe routes to school, dropout, and early marriage. Children with disabilities are also often excluded from the services their families seek for them.
Children also face the risk of unexploded remnants of war. Between December 2024 and December 2025, children accounted for 37% of all reported civilian casualties from explosive ordnance in Syria, and 28% of those killed, according to NGO safety advisory body INSO. Much of the contamination is in agricultural land and the routes families walk every day.
Only 57% of hospitals and 37% of primary health centres remain fully functional.
Lina*, 12, tried to go home with her family but found her home and school reduced to rubble. They ended up returning to their camp where they had been living for five years.
She said: “When we reached our village, our house and our school were both in rubble, and we could not stay, so we returned to the camp. We are not numbers. We are faces, dreams, and small but strong hearts."
Jeremy Stoner, Save the Children Syria Acting Country Director, said:
“Fourteen years of war in Syria displaced half the country’s 25 million people and shaped an entire generation of children born into rubble and ruin, who have never known life before the war. Now, families are coming back home, hoping their children can finally grow up in safety and peace.”
“But no child can make a new beginning when there is no electricity or water supply; not enough food; no school or healthcare. When they are too scared to take a step outside due to the ground being littered with explosives.
“International law dictates that any return of refugees must be voluntary, safe, dignified and informed. This is not safe. Already, an entire generation had their childhoods stolen during the war in Syria. We now need to see mass investment in reconstruction so that this generation of children does not continue to pay the price.”
Save the Children is calling on the Government of Syria, host governments, the United Nations, and donors to place children's safety, rights, and recovery at the heart of decisions about return. The organisation is also calling for investment in the conditions children need to return safely and to stay, such as large-scale clearance of explosive ordnance, restoration of healthcare, water and education, and guaranteed civil documentation for returnee children.
Save the Children has been working in Syria since 2012, reaching over five million people, including more than three million children, with child protection, education, food security and livelihoods, water, sanitation and hygiene, health and nutrition.
ENDS
*name has been changed to protect anonymity
Notes to editors:
[1] Data from UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, shows that an estimated 953,000 children have returned to Syria since 8 December 2024. Children make up an estimated 57% of total refugee returnees in this time period.
[According to a UNHCR Syria operational update from December 2025, approximately 2 million internally displaced people (IDPs) had returned to their homes. According to the International Organisation for Migration (IOM), children account for 51% of Syrian IDP returns. 51% of 2 million is 1,020,000.
953,000 plus 1,020,000 is 1,973,000.
[2] Why Syrian refugee return is driven by push, not pull - Migration Policy Centre
[3] UNHCR Syria Governorates of Return Overview, 15 January 2026: UNHCR governorates of return dashboard - 15 January 2026
[5] Save the Children ‘One Shock Away’ report, based on 90 household surveys, 12 focus group discussions and 12 in-depth child case studies. Conducted between September and November 2025
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