More than 600,000 displaced Syrians return home, says IOM

More than 600,000 displaced Syrians have returned to their homes since the beginning of the year, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) says.

IOM said in a statement on Monday that 602,759 displaced Syrians had returned to their homes between January and the end of July.

"From January to July 2017, an estimated 808,661 people were displaced, many for the second or third time, and over six million in total currently remain displaced within the country," the statement added.

According to the figures from IOM, Aleppo Governorate had received 67 percent of all returnees so far this year.  And within the governorate, Aleppo city, which was recaptured by the Syrian army last December, has received most returnees.

Many of the returnees have cited an improved economic and security situation in the areas they had fled from.

More than a quarter of returnees said they did so to protect their assets and properties. This is while nearly the same number referred to the improved economic situation in their place of origin, and 11 percent cited the improved security situation there.

Fourteen percent meanwhile pointed to the worsening economic situation in their place of refuge.

Many of those returning must struggle to get bare necessities, with only 41 percent having access to clean water and 39 percent with access to health services.

This "is dangerously low as the country's infrastructure has been extremely damaged by the conflict," the agency warned.

Figures show a total of 84 percent of those who have returned had taken refuge elsewhere within the war-ravaged country. This is while the remaining 16 percent returned from neighboring countries Turkey, Lebanon, Jordan and Iraq.

And even as returns from within Syria especially appear to be on the rise, IOM has warned that the militant-riddled country is still seeing high rates of fresh displacement.

International organizations have warned about the "desperate" plight of millions of people displaced in the aftermath of the six-year-long Syrian crisis.

The United Nations says the militancy, which has escalated due to operations by Takfiri terrorists groups such as Daesh, has displaced more than 7.2 million Syrians internally, and compelled over four million others to take refuge in neighboring countries.

The Daesh terrorist group has also been carrying out different types of gruesome crimes against various religious and ethnic groups in Syria, forcing Syrians to flee their homes for their lives.

The Damascus government has repeatedly blamed certain foreign countries for the spread of the devastating militancy.       

Over the past few months, Syrian forces have made sweeping gains against the Takfiri elements, which have in turn increased their acts of violence across the country.

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