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UNHCR / SYRIA RETURNEES
STORY: UNHCR / SYRIA RETURNEES
TRT: 1:59
SOURCE: UNHCR
RESTRICTIONS: PLEASE CREDIT UNHCR ON SCREEN
LANGUAGE: ARABIC / NATS
DATELINE: 04 MARCH 2019, HOMS, SYRIA
04 MARCH 2019, HOMS, SYRIA
1. Wide shot, Jihad standing while Abdelrahman releases pigeons from cage
2. Various shots, pigeons
3. Wide shot, man walking among rubble
4. Wide shot, Jihad and family sitting together
5. Close up, Abdelrahman’s face
6. Close up, Jihad’s other son
7. Wide shot, family bedroom
8. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Jihad, Syrian returnee:
“We came back a year ago, but no doors, no windows, not even a front door. We sleep on these cushions; like the ones over there. We have absolutely nothing.”
9. Wide shot, Jihad and son standing on damaged balcony looking down street
10. Med shots, jihad holding daughter standing on damaged balcony
11. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Jihad, Syrian returnee:
“Even if you don’t have a ceiling, and you put a tent inside your house; it’s better than living anywhere else.”
12. Med shot, Jihad walking up damaged stairs
13. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Abdelrahman, Jihad’s son:
“We lost three years of school. Every time we would study for a month and then we would have to move and leave school. This continued until we reached here and found stability.”
14. Pan right, Jihad opens newly built window
15. Wide shot, Jihad and son standing on roof of their house watching pigeons
16. Close up, pigeons on roof
17. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Jihad, Syrian returnee:
“I wouldn’t trade my home for the whole world.”
18. Wide shot, broken window
19. Wide shot, Pigeons flying
Slowly, some Syrians are returning to their destroyed homes and neighbourhoods. Jihad was the last to leave his home in Homs and the first to return. The task rebuilding his life is daunting.
Before the war, Jihad had hundreds of homing pigeons. Now he has only 40.
From the sky above the damage is plain to see.
SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Jihad, Syrian returnee:
“We came back a year ago, but no doors, no windows, not even a front door. We sleep on these cushions; like the ones over there. We have absolutely nothing.”
Their house was in shambles. Still the family was determined to stay.
SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Jihad, Syrian returnee:
“Even if you don’t have a ceiling, and you put a tent inside your house; it’s better than living anywhere else.”
The instability the family faced has affected many aspects of their lives, including education.
SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Abdelrahman, Jihad’s son:
“We lost three years of school. Every time we would study for a month and then we would have to move and leave school. This continued until we reached here and found stability.”
The family is now looking to rebuild, and their house is slowly being fixed. A local NGO installed windows and doors, and Jihad’s homing pigeons are also back.
SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Jihad, Syrian returnee:
“I wouldn’t trade my home for the whole world.”
Self-organized returns of IDPs and refugees from neighbouring countries continue to several areas where stability has been restored, hostilities declined or ceased, and which have become newly accessible. As of December 2018, 1.4 million IDPs in Syria are estimated to have returned to their homes (according to OCHA), while UNHCR recorded 56,047 Syrian refugees having spontaneously returned.
An increase in self-organized returns of refugees in 2019 is expected. The UN refugee agency (UNHCR) said it would continue to respond to the needs of displaced persons and refugee returnees with the same community-based protection approach as it has been implementing to assist internally displaced Syrians. Over the course of the last eight years over 6.2 million Syrians have been internally displaced.
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