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STORY: UNHCR / GRANDI SYRIAN RETURNEES
TRT: 05:55
SOURCE: UNHCR
RESTRICTIONS: PLEASE CREDIT UNHCR ON SCREEN
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / ARABIC / NATS
DATELINE: 20 JUNE 2025, JDEIDET YABOUS / MASNAA BORDER CROSSING, SYRIA
1. Various shots, vehicles arriving at Jdeidet Yabous border
2. Various shots, arrivals terminal
3. Various shots, Un High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi arriving at terminal
4. Various shots, Syrians at arrivals counters
5. Various shots, Grandi meeting returnees
6. Various shots, UNHCR staff helping returnees
7. Various shots, Grandi walking towards and entering bus carrying returnees from arrival terminal at border
8. Various shots, Grandi speaking with returnees on the bus
9. Close up, young girl on bus
10. Wide shot, Bus leaving border point
11. SOUNDBITE (English) Filippo Grandi, UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR):
“I come here at a moment of great danger, of great risk in this region, with the flare up of hostilities between Israel and Iran. With the continuation of the devastating conflict in Gaza and many other difficult situations. But I come here to the one place where we can prove that when there is a political opportunity, when there is international support, crisis can end and people can move towards a better future.”
12. SOUNDBITE (English) Filippo Grandi, UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR):
“I think it is very significant for me to spend World Refugee Day in a country where refugees finally can stop being refugees and can resume their place in their own communities, in their own societies, in their own country. It will be tough, and they will need a lot of help – not just, as you can see here, with transport, with basic needs being met, but they will need to be reintegrated into a society that has been severely affected by this long period of dictatorship and war.”
13. SOUNDBITE (English) Filippo Grandi, UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR):
“If the international support does not come to Syria, if the country is not helped by the international community to go back to normality, then these returns will be very, very short-lived, will be very precarious, will not be sustainable. Then, even the people who have remained in Syria will opt to leave again, and this has to be avoided at all costs. So on World Refugee Day, I really appeal to the international community to step up their support to this country and its people.”
14. Pan right, Truck carrying belongings leaving border terminal
15. Various shots, other cars arriving at border
16. Various shots, returnees arriving at border point
17. Various shots, Arrivals terminal with returnees waiting to process documents
18. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Iman Al Shabli, Syrian returnee:
“It’s an indescribable feeling of happiness and everything is good. I cannot explain or describe it. I haven’t seen Aleppo in 14 years.”
19. Various shots, returnees processing documents
20. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Iman Al Shabli, Syrian returnee:
“Today I am here to go to Aleppo and see how the situation has changed. If the situation is very good, I will definitely go back and take my family and return to rebuilding our home so I can settle down again and live the life I used to live.”
21.Med shot, Iman with UNHCR staff
22. Various shots, cars crossing border
This World Refugee Day – a day to honour the courage and resilience of millions of people, UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi shares in the hope of Syrians returning home from exile and takes a moment to sound the alarm on ongoing crisis.
UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) Filippo Grandi today (20 June) met Syrian families who have returned after more than a decade as refugees. Their deep joy at being among familiar faces and surroundings – despite the many challenges – is a poignant reminder of the yearning refugees feel for home.
It has been 14 years of conflict but there is now hope and a historic opportunity for Syria to move toward peace and stability. Over 13 million people have been forced to flee their homes over the past 14 years. Since the fall of the Assad regime on 8 December 2024, returning home voluntarily has become a possibility for the Syrian people.
Worldwide, record numbers of men, women and children – over 122 million people worldwide – have been uprooted from their homes, but their ability to find safety and support is threatened as never before.
The abject failure to end conflicts – from Sudan to Ukraine, from the Democratic Republic of the Congo to Gaza – continues to create untold human suffering. Yet the innocent people who run for their lives as the bullets fly and the missiles rain down are unjustly stigmatized, making it harder to escape danger and to find somewhere to recover and rebuild.
