By Fatima Khaled/ Fayyad Muhammad
RAQQA, Syria (North Press) – After she was displaced from the city of Tel Abyad, northern Syria, four years ago, Shamsa Ali was forced to live as an IDP in the city of Raqqa, in northern Syria.
Ali, 40, said she suffers for being away from her village. Thousands of IDPs relive this pain on each anniversary of their displacement, according to Ali.
In October 2019, Turkish forces, along with their opposition factions of the Syrian National Army (SNA), occupied the city of Tel Abyad and its surrounding areas after a military operation dubbed ‘Peace Spring’. About 175,000 people were displaced from the area.
She told North Press that the dire living conditions she goes through are putting additional burden on her. She is forced to work with her daughters in collecting plastic and empty bottles to sell them in order to support themselves.
After she left Tel Abyad with her daughters and disabled husband, with no belongings, she found nothing except a small room that she covered with worn-out canvas.
“I do not even have a tent to shelter in. We were forced to flee and live in poverty,” she said. The woman, her family, and thousands of displaced people are left homeless.
More than 85 percent of those who fled during the Turkish operation have not returned to their homes, according to Synergy/Hevdesti Association, a victims’ advocacy group operating in northeast Syria.
The IDPs of Tel Abyad are still suffering from difficult living conditions four years after displacement.
Ali is forced to live in a small room with her five daughters and disabled husband, relying on charities most of the time to secure what they need.
“We are exhausted of the unbearable conditions of displacement. We wait for the mercy of Allah,” she said.
Some of people who were displaced from Tel Abyad moved to Tel al-Samen camp in Raqqa, and others moved to the city of Raqqa and rented houses there, searching for a good life after losing hope of returning to their homes.
In a neighboring house, Omar Shukri, an IDP from Tel Abyad, struggles to support his family. The challenging living conditions and the high cost of living have placed a heavy burden on him, particularly in the absence of international NGOs that provide support for IDPs.
Shukri relocated to Raqqa and now works as a taxi driver. His car is the sole remaining possession he has after losing his land and house in Tel Abyad.
But the difficult living conditions and the rise in prices due to the depreciation of the Syrian pound have increased their suffering.
Shakri said that the hope of returning home never leaves him, even after all the suffering they have experienced during the war.
He calls on the international community to take a firm stance against Turkey and to return the IDPs.
As an IDP, when you live in a house is better than living in a tent, said Antar Khalil, one of the IDPs from Tel Abyad who now resides in Raqqa. However, “the house has also become like a tent due to the lack of basic necessities of life.”
Khalil and his family were displaced after the SNA seized their belongings and sold them, so the man had no choice but to flee like others from Tel Abyad.
Khalil still hopes of returning home, as it is not easy to endure the suffering of being an IDP and the difficulty of living in a city where people “call us strangers and displaced.” However, the repeated Turkish threats of invading other regions of northern Syria have hindered that hope.
Violations
Most of the Turkish-backed factions are involved in arbitrary arrests and torture. The Monitoring and Documentation Department of North Press recorded
496 arbitrary arrests by SNA factions during the first half of 2023, with 79 in Sere Kaniye (Ras al-Ain) and 13 in Tel Abyad.
SNA factions have seized more than 5,500 residential houses and 1,200 stores in Sere Kaniye and Tel Abyad since the attack on the region in October 9, 2019, according to Synergy Association.
Synergy also recorded 592 cases of arrests, including 73 women and 53 children, and 163 cases of individuals who were forcibly disappeared. In addition, it documented 492 instances of torture, resulting in the deaths of at least six people. The association further documented 92 detainees who were transferred to Turkey, and 55 detainees who received prison sentences ranging from 13 years to life imprisonment.
In addition to the ongoing violations committed by the militants and leaders of SNA factions without accountability, the continuous infighting between these factions has further contributed to the security chaos in the region.