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First Return Convoy to Ras al-Ain: 410 Families Head Home After Years in Displacement
The first convoy returning displaced residents of Ras al-Ain (Serekaniye) and its countryside from Hasakah governorate to their hometowns set off on Monday, nearly seven years after the October 2019 wave of displacement. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported that the initial convoy includes 410 families; logistical arrangements and transport for families and their belongings were completed and the movement proceeded under the escort of internal security forces (Asayish).
The convoy’s departure was accompanied by moving testimonies from displaced people who kept their house keys as symbols of hope. One returnee recalled fleeing with “only our keys and memories,” living for years in tattered tents through harsh winters and summers, counting 2,496 days away from his city until the convoy’s departure and hoping the “absence counter” will stop and an “stability counter” begin. Other accounts recounted loved ones who died in exile and will not live to see the return, and relatives buried in temporary graves awaiting repatriation.
Several testimonies described long stays in camps since late 2019 — camps named after their towns, such as Washo Kani and Serekaniye — where families preserved old utility bills, house keys, photos of fields and neighborhoods, and clung to the hope of returning. A young woman who married during displacement addressed returnees, urging them to tell Ras al-Ain about those who died in exile and about the pain of returning without them.
These testimonies reflect part of the suffering of thousands who spent long years away from their city but kept the keys to their homes and their hope of return. With the first convoy’s departure, thousands more displaced people await subsequent phases of return, hoping this step will mark the beginning of ending displacement and restoring life to the city and its neighborhoods.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reiterated its call to guarantee the safe, dignified, and voluntary return of all displaced Syrians to their original areas — including people from Ras al-Ain (Serekaniye) and Tell Abyad, and the residents of Kafriya, al-Fu'ah, Ishtabraq, and other areas that suffered forced displacement or demographic changes during the conflict. The Observatory stressed that lasting stability in Syria requires returning displaced people to their homes, rehabilitating areas before return, and ensuring returnees’ rights to housing, property, and a decent life, free from any form of forced displacement, exclusion, or demographic alteration.
