We calculate that there is hope to see around one million Syrians return between January and June next year, says Rema Jamous Imseis, head of the Middle East and North Africa at the UN's refugee agency UNHCR, during a press conference in Geneva.
According to Rema Jamous Imseis, the recent developments give "an enormous amount of hope that the largest displacement crisis we have on the planet earth will finally be resolved".
Several European countries have paused their asylum processing of Syrians after the fall of the Assad regime, but Rema Jamous Imseis emphasizes that the change in government does not mean that the humanitarian crisis in Syria is over.
No one should be forcibly sent back to Syria, and the Syrians' right to maintain access to asylum must be preserved, she says.
Give us and Syrian refugees time to assess whether it is safe to return... It is simply too early to see how safe it will become.
Bashar al-Assad fled from Syria just over a week ago when the Islamist group HTS (Hayat Tahrir al-Sham) took over power in the country.
