Damascus, Syria – When the al-Assad regime fell in December 2024, Yasseen Tasabehji and his household didn’t initially plan on returning to Syria.
Tasabehji, now 33, his 4 siblings and his mother and father had moved to Mississauga, a suburb of Toronto in Canada, in 2010, a 12 months earlier than the beginning of the Syrian rebellion and subsequent conflict. They’d constructed what Tasabehji describes as a “fairly good” life and didn’t plan on ever returning.
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Through the conflict years, his mom returned as soon as to go to household, however the remainder of the household didn’t.
“The Syrian file was simply closed for all of us,” Tasabehji informed Al Jazeera. “We had the sensation that we might by no means return.”
Then, in late 2024, a insurgent operation took Aleppo from the al-Assad regime and carried on to Hama and Homs. Inside a matter of days, the al-Assad household had fled to Moscow and the Syrian opposition have been celebrating the liberation of Damascus.
For Tasabehji and his household, a “Pandora’s field opened”, he mentioned. “It coincided with a time in our lives once we have been considering, ‘OK, what’s subsequent? What will we wish to do?’ We have been on the lookout for a way of function, a way of fulfilment.”
Tasabehji mentioned he and his siblings all had good jobs, in addition to family and friends. However they nonetheless felt a calling. “We felt like this is likely to be it. We’d have the ability to do one thing right here.”
The household visited in April 2025 with the thought of presumably opening a climbing gymnasium – a few the siblings are critical climbers. After a monthlong journey to see household in Damascus, the siblings packed their baggage again in Canada and moved to Syria completely in July.
“We noticed a rustic that wants the whole lot, and we felt like every addition will make an enormous distinction,” Tasabehji informed Al Jazeera, sitting comfortably contained in the household’s climbing gymnasium – they determined to observe by with the thought – in Damascus’s Mezzeh neighbourhood. The household are already making an attempt to provide again, operating a variety of programmes on the climbing gymnasium to assist younger Syrians construct shallowness and type a neighborhood.
As he spoke, Tasebehji’s sister was educating a category of younger kids and his father, who remains to be based mostly in Canada with their mom, however is now additionally contemplating making a everlasting transfer, sat towards a climbing wall.
“We noticed how younger individuals haven’t any choices, no wholesome communities, no well being actions, no place to only collect and really feel good. And everyone needed to depart,” he mentioned. “It grew to become a objective of ours to make Syria extra engaging to younger individuals, in order that they’ll see a future right here.”
Returning dwelling
Tasabehji and his siblings are just some of the 1.5 million Syrians who’ve returned to the nation because the nation’s former President Bashar al-Assad fled Damascus.
Many have been refugees in locations like Turkiye or Lebanon, whereas others have been working in Europe or the Gulf and determined they needed to return to their nation. There may be optimism amongst many returnees, regardless of financial difficulties and rising energy costs, and now, hope to rebuild their homes and their lives.
Nonetheless, returnees face some uphill struggles. The World Financial institution estimates that Syria’s reconstruction prices will quantity to not less than $216bn. Syria’s new authorities, led by President Ahmed al-Sharaa, has labored arduous to return the battered nation to the worldwide fold by efficiently lobbying for the removal of economy-hindering sanctions.
And never all Syrians have returned to the nation with the plan that it is going to be their closing vacation spot. Tariq Azeez, the Worldwide Rescue Committee’s coverage, advocacy and communications coordinator, informed Al Jazeera that about 400,000 Syrians have returned from Lebanon resulting from Israel’s conflict.
“Some will transfer again to Lebanon if the state of affairs there improves,” Azeez mentioned.
The financial state of affairs in Syria has made it tough for a lot of returnees to reintegrate or rebuild their lives. Many are already struggling financially and will take into account relocating overseas once more if the chance arises.
And situations in Syria are nonetheless tough – 15.6 million Syrians, two-thirds of the nation’s inhabitants, are at present in want of humanitarian help.
Potential issues
However returning to Syria additionally comes with potential social pitfalls.
Tens of millions of Syrians have spent the conflict years overseas, in neighbouring nations, Europe, North America, or the Gulf. Others have been displaced internally in Syria, pressured to depart their properties due to the destruction wrought by the conflict, or for political causes.
Now, as Syria tries to not solely rebuild its infrastructure but additionally its society, 1000’s of Syrians are returning to areas they used to reside in after all kinds of lived experiences.
“Civilians are studying how you can reside with one another once more,” IRC’s Azeez mentioned, including that some are returning with completely different norms or completely different politics. “It might be an accident ready to occur.”
Azeez mentioned that violence was not the one menace, but additionally a disparity in entry to companies might result in a breakdown in belief between communities.
Institutionally, Syria nonetheless has quite a bit to do. Investments, significantly from regional and worldwide allies, have been broadly promised, however motion is gradual.
Azeez mentioned that for Syria to stay secure, returns must be gradual and sequenced, as Syria isn’t geared up to obtain massive waves of returnees all of sudden. Because the nation’s buildings and cities are reconstructed, so too should its social contract and concord be rebuilt.
Again on the climbing gymnasium, Tasabehji mentioned that on returning to Syria, he observed there have been social and sectarian divides within the nation. The problems are a lot larger than one climbing gymnasium can clear up, even with the household’s spectacular credentials and plans to construct a well-adjusted neighborhood.
Nonetheless, they’re taking part in their half to construct a greater Syria for these nonetheless within the nation or these deciding to return again to their homeland. And a part of that’s by making a welcoming house that draws Syrians from throughout the id spectrum.
“We’re making an attempt to actually introduce individuals to one another in order that they’ll reside collectively,” Tasabehji mentioned, “and construct the way forward for this nation.”
