Enab Baladi – Jana al-Issa

For two consecutive weeks at the end of December 2024, Ammar’s three children worked on removing the rubble inside and around their home, cleaning the rooms that were filled with stones and debris from the aftermath of the bombing that affected their home, like most houses in the city of al-Qusayr in southern Homs governorate since 2013.

Ammar returned with his family, which consists of seven members, with the oldest child being 23 years old and the youngest being 7 years old, after they lived for over 12 years in the Lebanese city of Tripoli as refugees in difficult living conditions that did not allow them to return to their country along with the costs of restoring their house.

The family temporarily closed the windows of the house with meters of nylon fixed with wooden pieces on the edges of the windows, and due to the high prices of the main door or the doors of the internal rooms, the family had to substitute that with blankets and thick pieces of fabric as a substitute for doors.

The fall of the ousted regime allowed residents to return to the city of al-Qusayr in southern Homs amidst Syria, after years of displacement since 2013.

Their desire to return and settle collided with the manifestations and severe damage to their personal properties, including homes, shops, and real estate, alongside their weak financial capabilities and their complete inability to bear the costs of restoration.

Most of the families that returned to the city came from the Lebanese Arsal camps or from northern Syria, where they had been living in abject poverty.

This situation forced returnees to live among the rubble of their homes, with some starting to prepare just one room, for example, along with a bathroom and kitchen, as a preliminary living arrangement with the hope of gradually restoring the home over time, without a clear plan outlining funding sources or a timeline for completing the restoration of the house.

No better option than returning

Ammar was working as an elementary school teacher in mental arithmetic at one of the schools in Tripoli, Lebanon. Although his monthly salary was good compared to salary rates in Lebanon, the rising cost of living and the inadequacy of the salary to meet the needs of seven individuals made life there very difficult.

The fall of the regime prompted the family to return without much thought, according to what Ammar told Enab Baladi, motivated by the desire to settle in their country as the main reason, along with escaping the racism that some Lebanese people directed at Syrian refugees residing there, which has reached unacceptable limits in recent years.

Despite the difficult living conditions in al-Qusayr and the family’s return to the starting point, regarding restoring their home, sending their children back to school, or even Ammar looking for work, the family is very happy with their return due to their sense of belonging to their home, neighborhood, and region.

Amidst the many demands of their new life, Ammar lives in a state of prioritization, with home restoration being a priority; however, sending their children back to school is also a priority, which involves costs related to re-registering the children after providing identification papers and presenting a test to prove the educational level the students will study at.

The family has not yet been able to secure basic services for their home; for instance, they have postponed connecting the state electricity to the house officially due to the need to pay costs exceeding $100, while they receive minimal electricity that allows them to operate simple LED lights to ensure the house is illuminated at night, after a neighbor offered Ammar to connect a temporary electrical cable without any financial charge.

Ammar’s family is not the only one suffering from this situation; Enab Baladi has documented dozens of families in al-Qusayr living among the rubble of their homes and temporarily covering their entrances and exits.

Some families have brought their tents and set them up again on the rubble of their homes, where there are no roofs or walls, just the ground and some debris remaining.

These families sit with a sense of safety despite the unpreparedness of their homes and their inadequacy for general safety standards, yet they are on their land and in their homes where they grew up and were forcibly deprived of for many years.

The international and governmental movements regarding the reconstruction of homes remain unclear, forcing these families to rely on themselves to partially restore their homes over extended periods.

Hundreds of Syrian families are returning to al-Qusayr and settling on the rubble of their homes due to their inability to restore them – April 4, 2025 (Enab Baladi/Jana al-Issa)

Destruction for years

The city of al-Qusayr is located in the western countryside of Homs governorate in central Syria and includes more than 80 villages. It is a multi-sectarian city, comprising residents from Shiite, Alawite, and Christian backgrounds, with Sunnis being the majority.

Following the outbreak of battles and clashes in the city between the former regime’s army and opposition factions after 2011, and after the regime and Hezbollah seized control of al-Qusayr in June 2013, most residents of the city were displaced and directed to northern Syria, Lebanese Arsal camps, the center of Homs, and some neighboring towns in al-Qalamoun.

At that time, the city suffered near-total destruction, the effects of which are still evident in its northern and western parts, which were under the control of opposition factions, while the eastern part of the city, which remained under regime control, sustained less damage.

According to official Syrian statistics from 2011, the population of the city and its affiliated villages was about 112,000, while recent statistics on the number of residents in the city or the number of families that have recently returned following the fall of the ousted regime are absent.

The state plans without an announced timeline

Due to years of war, many Syrians suffer from the loss of their homes and possessions, which is why they view reconstruction from an individual perspective, where the need for housing becomes paramount for them.

Moreover, most citizens do not realize that reconstruction is a comprehensive economic process that includes infrastructure, productive sectors, and public services, and is not limited to rebuilding homes. Therefore, there is often a mistaken notion among many Syrians that reconstruction funds will primarily focus on restoring their damaged homes.

International organizations and the government will not be able to assist those whose homes were damaged by bombing and war over the past 14 years in the upcoming period, as the priority will be for the severely damaged infrastructure sectors.

Regarding the issue of reconstruction, the Ministry of Local Administration and Environment in the interim government of Damascus stated that it has put plans in place to assess the extent of the destruction in Syria, in preparation for starting the reconstruction process of houses destroyed by the bombardment of the former Syrian regime and its allies.

The former Minister of Local Administration and Environment, Muhammad Muslim, stated on January 2nd, that a colossal amount of destruction has been recorded in all Syrian provinces, whether in cities, villages, or rural areas, through the preliminary aerial survey of several destroyed areas.

Muslim added to the Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA), “We are still in the process of assessing all the sectors that need reconstruction, knowing that the former regime did not conduct any precise assessment of the provinces previously.”

He explained that the ministry will rely on specialized professional teams for assessment and will include them in practical workshops to commence accurate assessments in all governorates for various damaged facilities that need reconstruction.

The Ministry of Local Administration emphasized its intent to establish a clear database on the extent of the destruction and to set plans and objectives commensurate with it for the upcoming phase, with the aim of ensuring a safe return for the displaced.