3K displaced Syrian families return to Afrin in two days
Shafaq News- Damascus
Around 1,800 displaced families from Syria’s Afrin region departed Qamishli in northeastern Syria on Sunday in a new organized convoy returning to their hometowns in northern Aleppo province.
Shafaq News correspondent in Syria said the families traveled by buses and private vehicles along the M4 highway toward Afrin under tight security measures, one day after another convoy carrying about 1,200 families left Hasakah.
Mahmoud Khalil Ali, deputy commander of the Internal Security Forces in Hasakah, told our agency that the return process was continuing under the January 29 agreement between the Syrian government and the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), adding that operations would continue until “all residents” return to their areas.
The agreement established a ceasefire and outlined phased military and administrative integration between Damascus and the SDF, and included the withdrawal of forces from contact lines, deployment of Syrian Interior Ministry personnel into Hasakah and Qamishli, and plans to integrate regional security formations into a unified structure that includes SDF brigades.
Afrin has remained one of Syria’s most sensitive displacement files since Turkiye-backed factions captured the predominantly Kurdish region during Ankara’s 2018 “Operation Olive Branch.” The United Nations previously estimated that more than 150,000 people were displaced from Afrin during the operation, many relocating to Shahba, Hasakah, and Qamishli. According to Hasakah Deputy Governor Ahmad Al-Hilali, the latest returns had already helped clear schools, institutes, and public buildings used for years as emergency shelters for displaced civilians, easing pressure on local infrastructure and humanitarian services in northeastern Syria.
Despite the returns, Amnesty International and the UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Syria documented concerns over damaged infrastructure, unexploded ordnance, property seizures, and alleged demographic changes in Afrin following years of conflict and displacement.
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