EU passes law allowing offshore deportation centres

‘We tasted the horrors of war’: Stories of refugees who returned home

In 2025, nearly 15 million displaced people returned, the largest surge of returns recorded by the United Nations. "Returning was beautiful in the sense of going back to one’s country, but it was very exhausting physically, emotionally, financially, and mentally, because everything has changed," 37-year-old Hiam tells Al Jazeera. As the world marks World Refugee Day on June 20, Al Jazeera looks at who is going home and the conditions they are returning to. The overall displaced population, roughly the size of Egypt, the Philippines or the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), includes refugees, asylum seekers, Palestinians under UNRWA's mandate, internally displaced people (IDPs) and other people in need of international protection. At the same time, a relatively small number of host countries carried much of the responsibility for providing protection, with Jordan, Colombia, Germany and Turkiye hosting some of the world’s largest refugee populations. While the UNHCR reports that the sentiment shared by many refugees and IDPs is to return home to rebuild their lives, the organisation warns that the conditions for refugee returns are far from ideal, with many people returning to violence and instability, raising questions about the dangers facing those who go back to their country of origin. Refugee returns in 2025 were highly concentrated. Maryam, a 30-year-old widow, is one such refugee who returned to Afghanistan with her two sons after living in Iran for six years. "Now I have nothing - no job, no home, and no one to turn to," says Maryam . Approximately 1.3 million Syrians returned from abroad in 2025, nearly three times the figure recorded the previous year, while a further two million internally displaced Syrians went back home, cutting the global Syrian refugee population from 6 million to 4.9 million.