RAQQA, Syria (North Press) – Khaled Degheim, a displaced person in the western countryside of Raqqa, north Syria, collects some sticks from nearby agricultural lands in order to make fire as it is very cold and no winter supplies have been distributed to the camp where he is.
Degheim has been living with his wife and six children in a squatter camp for two years. A humanitarian organization delivered them a tent, but unfortunately the tent does not protect them from the strong wind in the winter.
IDPs in al-Mazyouna and al-Khayalah camps, 22 km west of Raqqa, say they live in their tents with no aid or winter supplies delivered to them specially that temperature has recently started to drop.
About 600 families live in both camps. Most of the families are from the countryside of Hama and Homs which the Syrian government forces took control in 2016.
IDPs scattered in 58 squatter camps in Raqqa countryside suffer the same situation amid absence of humanitarian aid to the region after the closure of al-Ya’rubiyah border crossing two years ago.
Heaters
As temperature gets too cold and IDPs have lost hope to receive any support, Degheim was compelled to collect sticks to make fire as diesel has yet to be provided to them.
Degheim told North Press that he did not get any aid since last year. He is too much concerned about his children to get sick since it is very cold.
“The situation in the camp is tragic. All the camps around us received assistance except our camp,” Degheim said.
Muhammad al-Ali, 39, a displaced person in al-Mazyouna Camp, said the IDPs in his camp received no assistance since a year. The camp lacks winter supplies which the families need the most.
The IDPs in the squatter camps in Raqqa countryside live in tents they purchased from their own money or distributed to them by local organization. They get some aid only from the Autonomous Administration or the local organizations.
The majority of the tents need curtains and blankets and contain shabby mattresses.
Discontinuous income
The 58 squatter camps in Raqqa shelter 15,000 families in total of 72,000 individuals according to the Camps Affairs Office in the Civil Council of Raqqa.
Khawla al-Ibrahim, 37, a displaced woman in al-Khayalah Camp, has worked for five years in making mud bricks in order to sustain her children.
Al-Ibrahim has lost her husband in the Syrian war.
She is able to feed her children and purchase winter clothes and diesel for them from her own work given humanitarian aid are absent.
One liter of diesel is sold for more than 1,000 Syrian pounds in the black market in Raqqa city whereas price of subsidized diesel is 410 Syrian pounds per liter.
Al-Ibrahim noted that her children need winter clothes and that she cannot buy them everything they need as prices are high.
A project for the new year
All the squatter camps in Raqqa countryside will be supported with winter in the beginning of 2022, Mnawar Majed, member of Camps Affair and Refuges Office, said. “winter clothes, mattresses and blankets will be provided”.
The Camps Affair and Refuges Office is coordinating with humanitarian organizations to support the IDPs with what they need, including winter kits, most notably to the camps in the west countryside of Raqqa.