Aref Shamtan, 73, preferred to pitch a tent near his destroyed home in northwest Syria rather than stay in a camp for the displaced following longtime ruler Bashar al-Assad's ouster.

"I feel good here, even among the rubble," Shamtan said, sipping tea at the tent near his field.

When he and his son returned after Assad's December 8 overthrow, Shamtan found his village of Al-Hawash, nestled among farmland in central Hama province, badly damaged.

The roof of their house was gone and its walls were cracked.

But "living in the rubble is better than living in the camps" near the border with Turkey, where he had been since 2011 after fleeing the fighting, Shamtan said.

Since Islamist forces ousted Assad after nearly 14 years of war, 1.87 million Syrians who were refugees abroad or internally displaced have returned to their areas of origin, the United Nations' International Organization for Migration says.

The IOM says the "lack of economic opportunities and essential services pose the greatest challenge" for those returning home.

Shamtan, who cannot afford to rebuild, decided around two months ago to leave........

© Al Monitor