17 hours ago
Last families depart Syria's major displacement camp
Shafaq News/ The Rukban displacement camp near the Jordanian-Syrian border officially closed after the final group of residents departed for eastern rural Homs.
Syria's Emergency and Disaster Management Minister Raed al-Saleh described the closure in a post on X as 'the end of one of the most severe humanitarian crises faced by displaced people.'
اغلاق مخيم الركبان يمثل نهاية لواحدة من أقسى المآسي الإنسانية التي واجهها أهلنا النازحون، نأمل أن تشكل هذه الخطوة بداية لمسار ينهي معاناة بقية المخيمات، يعيد أهلها إلى ديارهم بكرامة وأمان. #الجمهورية_العربية_السورية #وزارة_الطوارئ_والكوارث #مخيم_الركبان #سوريا
— Raed Al Saleh ( رائد الصالح ) (@RaedAlSaleh3) June 7, 2025
The closure comes as part of a broader trend of repatriation following the political transition in Syria. The UNHCR Representative of Syria Gonzalo Vargas Llosa noted in a post on X that approximately 500,000 Syrian refugees have returned home since the fall of the previous regime on December 8, 2024.
500,000 Syrian refugees have now returned home. I referred to this landmark moment in an interview with the Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA). Since the fall of the Assad regime, we have a historic opportunity to fulfill the hope of millions of refugees and internally displaced…
— Gonzalo Vargas Llosa (@llosa_gonzalo) May 16, 2025
Established in 2014 amid widespread displacement from Homs and Hama, the Rukban in southeastern Syria, in Rif Dimashq province, became one of the largest camps for displaced civilians during the Syrian Civil War. It had faced years of severe humanitarian hardship and, at its peak between 2018 and 2019, hosted nearly 50,000 internally displaced persons, most of them women and children.
