Largest return convoy heads to Syria’s Ras al-Ain countryside

Shafaq News- Al-Hasakah

About 847 displaced families will begin returning to villages in the countryside of Ras al-Ain (Serekaniye), in northeastern Syria, on Wednesday in the largest convoy since returns to the area began, an official within the committee representing the town's displaced residents told Shafaq News.

The families will leave displacement camps and shelters in the city of Al-Hasakah on Wednesday and Thursday. Work is continuing with the relevant institutions to bring the displaced home after conditions are prepared for a safe and dignified return, seven years after they were forced to flee, the official said.

Six convoys since August have taken 3,278 families back to Ras al-Ain and its countryside, as well as to villages around Tal Tamr, Zarkan and Abu Rasin, north of Al-Hasakah.

Committee spokesman Mahmoud Jamil warned of worsening humanitarian and security conditions in the Washokani and Al-Talae camps after a rainstorm damaged tents. He urged the Syrian presidential delegation handling returns, international organizations, and the UN refugee agency to speed up the process before winter.

Returns to the town of Ras al-Ain itself have been halted since August, when Kurdish families who went back were attacked, and only those from surrounding villages have returned since.

Ras al-Ain and Tal al-Abyad were captured in 2019 by Turkiye and allied Syrian opposition factions during Operation Peace Spring, which displaced more than 200,000 civilians, according to UN estimates. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights put the total at more than 300,000, including people displaced from Tal al-Abyad, Ras al-Ain, Darbasiyah, Ain al-Arab, Ain Issa, and other areas east of the Euphrates along the Turkish border.