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More than 115,000 Syrian refugees have returned to Syria from neighbouring countries since the overthrow of Bashar al-Assad’s regime last month, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees announced on Thursday.

The refugees returned from Turkey, Lebanon and Jordan, three countries hosting large numbers of Syrian refugees since the conflict there began in 2011.

Data regarding returnee numbers was collected by the host countries, immigration services in Syria, and data gathered by the UNHCR and its partners at border crossings, the agency said.

Islamist-led rebels led a lighting offensive in Syria on 27 November, toppling Assad’s 53-year-old Ba'athist regime on 8 December.

It came after more than 13 years of a multifaceted conflict which began with the regime's brutal suppression of peaceful protests and saw the intervention of multiple regional and global powers, as well as extremist groups and foreign militias.

Turkey has hosted the largest number of Syrian refugees by numbers, with around 3.5 million, but Lebanon has hosted the highest number in proportion to its population, with around 1.5 million in a country of about 5 million citizens.

Syrian refugees have faced growing discrimination and hostility in host countries in recent years, being scapegoated for economic problems.

In Turkey, there have been a number of racially motivated and violent attacks against Syrians.

Turkey’s Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya said 35,113 Syrians had voluntarily returned home, while Jordan said more than 22,000 went back to Syria via Jordanian territory, according to the UNHCR. The agency said it noticed a shift in pattern from Jordan this week, with more women and children returning instead of men by themselves.

"When conducting interviews, some families reported that the head of the family [father] would remain in Jordan for several more months in order to earn money that would support the reintegration of the family within Syria, before joining them," said UNHCR.

Lebanese authorities had previously said that only a few thousand Syrians returned to their country following the collapse of the regime there.

According to the UNHCR, approximately 664,000 people are still internally displaced throughout Syria, especially in the northwestern Idlib and Aleppo governorates. The majority – 75 percent – are women and children.

Approximately 486,000 internally displaced persons have returned to their regions though, particularly in Hama and Aleppo governorates.