United Nations: About 1 million refugees will return to Syria in the first half of next year

The head of the U.N. investigative agency told a news conference Tuesday that he has been in contact with the new Syrian authorities through diplomatic missions, offering to engage with them and travel to Syria to obtain evidence.

"Our priority is to determine the extent of the problem, to see how we can get the evidence and how we can best assist in preserving it," Petit said, according to Reuters.

He added that some evidence had been lost in Syria in recent weeks, but it was too soon to determine the scale of the loss.

The U.N. refugee agency's regional director for the Middle East and North Africa, David Imseth, said Tuesday that about 1 million Syrian refugees are expected to return to the country in the first six months of 2025 and asked countries not to forcibly return them.

"Now we are forecasting that between January and June next year, hopefully around 1 million Syrians will return and we hope that donors will provide support," said Imseth.

She said thousands of people had fled Syria after Assad's fall this month, while thousands more had returned to the country, mostly from Turkey, Lebanon and Jordan.