BEIRUT – On Thursday, the leader of the U.N. refugee agency in Lebanon expressed optimism that the recent decision by the United States to remove comprehensive sanctions on Syria might incentivize more refugees to return home.
This development follows the U.S. Senate’s vote on Wednesday to permanently eliminate the Caesar Act sanctions, initially put in place during President Donald Trump’s administration. The vote was part of the annual defense spending bill, which President Trump is anticipated to approve by Thursday.
Since the ouster of former Syrian President Bashar Assad in December 2024, approximately 400,000 Syrian refugees have returned to Syria from Lebanon, according to UNHCR Lebanon Representative Karolina Lindholm Billing. Lebanon still hosts around 1 million Syrian refugees, with about 636,000 officially registered with the U.N. refugee agency.
The U.N. refugee agency has reported that over 1 million refugees and nearly 2 million internally displaced Syrians have returned to their homes since the fall of Assad.
Refugees coming back from neighboring countries receive $600 per family upon their return. However, with many returning to homes that are destroyed and facing a lack of employment opportunities, this financial aid often proves insufficient. This situation might prompt some to consider leaving again.
International aid to help Syrians rebuild has been limited compared to the vast needs, Billing noted. However, she believes that the easing of U.S. sanctions could significantly impact rebuilding efforts.
The World Bank estimates it will cost $216 billion to rebuild the homes and infrastructure damaged and destroyed in Syria’s civil war.
“So what is needed now is big money in terms of reconstruction and private sector investments in Syria that will create jobs,” which the lifting of sanctions could encourage, Billing said.
Lawmakers imposed the wide-reaching Caesar Act sanctions on Syria in 2019 to punish Assad for human rights abuses during the country’s civil war.
Despite the temporary lifting of the sanctions by executive order, there has been little movement on reconstruction. Advocates of a permanent repeal argued that international companies are unlikely to invest in projects needed for the country’s rebuilding as long as there is a threat of sanctions returning.
New refugees face difficulties
While there has been a steady flow of returnees over the past year, other Syrians have fled the country since Assad was ousted by Islamist-led insurgents. Many of them are members of religious minorities fearful of being targeted by the new authorities — particularly members of the Alawite sect to which Assad belonged and Shiites fearful of being targeted in revenge attacks because of the support provided to Assad during the war by Iran and the Lebanese Shiite militant group Hezbollah.
Hundreds of Alawite civilians were killed in outbreaks of sectarian violence on Syria’s coast in March.
While the situation has calmed since then, Alawites continue to report sporadic sectarian attacks, including incidents of kidnapping and sexual assault of women.
About 112,000 Syrians have fled to Lebanon since Assad’s fall, Billing said. Coming at a time of shrinking international aid, the new refugees have received very little assistance and generally do not have legal status in the country.
“Their main need, one of the things they raise with us all the time, is documentation because they have no paper to prove that they are in Lebanon, which makes it difficult for them to move around,” Billing said.
While some have returned to Syria after the situation calmed in their areas, she said, “Many are very afraid of being returned to Syria because what they fled were very violent events.”
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