Over 6,000 Syrian Refugees Returned Home Over Past Week - Russian Military

MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 03rd October, 2018) More than 6,000 Syrian refugees and internally displaced persons returned to their homes over the last week, representative of the Russian National Defense Management Center Maj. Gen. Evgeny Ilyin said on Wednesday.

"Over the past week, 6,163 Syrians returned to their homes, including 1,212 from foreign countries and 4,951 from other areas inside Syria," Ilyin said at a joint meeting of the Russian-Syrian Joint Coordination Committee for the return of refugees.

Ilyin stressed that 147 residential buildings, a school, a medical facility, and a nursery school were renovated in areas controlled by the Syrian government over the last week.

He also cited a survey conducted by the UN Refugee Agency last month, which showed that compared to October 2017, the number of Syrians currently residing in Egypt, Jordan, Iraq and Lebanon who intend to return to their home country grew from 51 percent to 76 percent.

Syria has been in a state of civil war since 2011, with the government forces fighting against numerous opposition groups and terrorist organizations. Russia along with Turkey and Iran are guarantors of the ceasefire in Syria.