Crisis Traders Led Displaced People to the Open
Crisis Traders Led Displaced People to the Open
“High rental prices of houses and even tents” A summary of the new tragedy of displaced people, a few days after their displacement from their villages and towns in the country of Idlib and Hama, due to the shelling and attacking of the Syrian Government forces.
Displaced people from northwestern Hama and the southern countryside of Idlib, to the north of Syria, who have fled from the ongoing battles in their areas between the armed opposition forces and the Syrian Government forces, are suffering from being exploited by houses owners, who raise the price of renting, additionally, the camp officials raised the rent of the tents as well, what made things worse.
This exploitation forced people to sleep in the open among olive bushes, hoping for a quick return to their villages and towns, at a time the Syrian north witnessed a great pressure represented by the displacement of 460,000 people from Idlib and Hama since the beginning of February 2019.
Crisis Traders
A correspondent of “North Press” walked around parts of the Syrian north, where the areas of the displacement, and met some of them, to find out about their tragedy. As Imad Al-Safi, a displaced from the countryside of Hama talked about their displacement “death in different ways, we fled from shelling to be driven to the exploitation of houses owners, real estate offices and camp officials.”
“When I went to search for a house for my seven- member family, I found that the house rent, ranges between/30,000 SYP and 150,000 SYP, which is greater than what I can afford, as many displaced people, who fled the horror of the bombing.” Al-Safi added.
Moreover, Al-Safi confirmed his suffering, by talking about being left with his family in the open to sleep under olive trees in the north of Syria because he did not have even a small amount of money to rent the house, describing the owners as “crisis traders”, he said “Neither the Syrian Government forces had mercy on us to let us stayed in our houses, nor houses owners in the north took our situation into consideration and exploited us.”
Tents for Rent. “New kind of Exploitation”
Hamza al-Abd, speaking about the exploitation, told North Press correspondent about his search in a camp in the north of Syria for a tent, to be struck by the rental price of the tent that exceeded 50.000 Syrian pounds, and he pointed out that the price was about 25.000 SYP before the recent wave of displacement.
“I was forced, with my family, to go out to the open in the olive groves, as a result of the exploitation of houses owners, during the holy month of Ramadan,” al-Abd added.
The Destination of the Displaced people does not Shelter them
The areas of the northern Idlib countryside, which are safe, and a destination for displaced people, turned to be a shocking destination for them, beginning with the high rents for both houses and tents and that north of Idlib became a passageway for displaced people towards the areas of the Olive Branch forces control and the Euphrates Shield forces backed by Turkey. Those who do not have the price of rent are homeless between the olive trees and the north open.
The director of (the response coordinator’s team) provided North Press on Monday, the latest statistics of the displaced people during the three military campaigns carried out by the Syrian Government forces since October of 2018 reaching about 540 thousand people, while the number of displaced people in the last campaign since the beginning of February until today was approximately /458779 person.
The numbers of the displaced people continues to increase, amid difficult humanitarian and living conditions that the displaced people suffer from, as a result of the decline in the services provided by the relief and humanitarian agencies plus the rainstorms that have hit the northern Syrian camps recently in the end of 2018.
Idlib – Mustafa Obaid – NPA