LONDON: Dozens of refugee families in the Syrian Arab Republic returned on Sunday to their home villages after living in camps in the northern Idlib governorate.

A convoy transporting 220 displaced families returned to their communities in Hama, Homs, Aleppo, Deir Ezzor, Latakia, Damascus, and the outskirts of Idlib, according to the Syrian Arab News Agency.

Mohammad Bakir, director of the Northern District of Social Affairs and Labor in Idlib, said the Syrian Arab Red Crescent and the Violet charity provided families with bedding kits, food baskets, and ready-to-eat canned goods. Multiple authorities coordinated efforts to repatriate the families, including the UN Refugee Agency.

Fatima Al-Ahmad lived in tents and makeshift accommodation for 13 years. She said she was relieved to finally return home to the Qleidin village in Hama’s Al-Ghab Plain.

Murhaf Al-Saffan, who lived in the Al-Karama camps in Idlib, said residents had endured years of hardship and continued to face difficult conditions. Despite partial damage to his home, he said he had decided to return, SANA added.

The recent convoy is part of the “Syria Without Camps” initiative, which aims to facilitate the return of displaced Syrians.

Syria’s civil war, which erupted in March 2011, forced more than 13 million people across the country from their homes, including more than 6 million refugees outside Syria and over 7 million people displaced inside the country at various points.

Since the fall of the Bashar Assad regime in a rebel offensive in late 2024, more than 3.5 million Syrians have returned, according to UN figures.