RAQQA, Syria (North Press) – Stories of deprivation of the right to food and clothes are similar and continue in squatter camps in Raqqa, with the UN non-governmental organizations’ work limited to only providing raising awareness sessions to IDPs.
There are 58 squatter camps in Raqqa governorate, northern Syria, which shelter 90.000 IDPs, according to the Office of Camps and Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) Affairs in the Raqqa Civil Council.
The Raqqa Civil Council is affiliated with Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (AANES).
Most of IDPs at these camps are skinny, as hunger and scarcity gravely affected details of their faces and bodies where they look much older than they are.
Those people, who used to own houses and properties in their original areas, remember everyday they lives there painfully. Those memories, as they say, make them want to die a thousand time a day, but they are forced to keep going.
The AANES was first formed in 2014 in the Kurdish-majority regions of Afrin, Kobani and Jazira in northern Syria following the withdrawal of the government forces. Later, it was expanded to Manbij, Tabqa, Raqqa, Hasakah and Deir ez-Zor after the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) defeated ISIS militarily.
Most of the IDPs in these camps are children, women and elderly, including thousands of patients, persons with special needs and wounded due war who hardly find what keeps them alive.
The IDPs in these camps hail from areas of the countryside of Aleppo, Homs and Hama, they left their areas before Syrian government forces regained control over them after battles with the Islamic State Organizations (ISIS).
They live in tents that are made of remains of cloth, blankets and grain bags. It is rare to see tents like those in camps run by the AANES that bear either the UN or UNRWA labels.
Dust storms that hit Raqqa and other areas in northeastern Syria recently tore up lots of tents beyond repair, as their owners were unable to buy alternatives, thus they were left with two options either to share unaffected tents with others or stay in the open.
Ali Shadid, an IDP from the countryside of Homs who resides in the squatter camp al-Dahmoush in the southern countryside of Raqqa, summarize his sufferings, saying, “We fear the future, we fear that our children remain hungry in the open at uninhabitable camps, not to mention illiteracy and diseases that ravage our bodies.”
The 40-year-old man added, “Everyday, we are slowly dying in this camp, while the world is watching us and doing nothing.”
The residents of the camp who complain the lack of humanitarian aid are forced to deprive their children of education and send them to work in order to secure their daily basics.
In those camps, you can see undressed children or children wearing ripped up clothes just to cover their bodies, an IDP woman told North Press.
Additionally, families are forced to ration meals, some of them delay breakfast and lunch to provide dinner, with only legumes such as rice and bulgur are cooked for their main and usual meals that often lack meat.
IDPs are rarely able to obtain job opportunities, and if they exist, they are seasonal and are often linked to farm work in neighboring lands in turn for low wages that does not meet their basic needs.
The IDPs wait for any car that picks up people with papers, hoping that they may belong to some NGOs, who visit the camp to register the IDPs’ names for obtaining aid, but this has not happened for many months.
Meanwhile, civil organizations operating in the camps in Raqqa focus on raising health and psychological awareness sessions only which do not prevent cold or heat and do not alleviate hunger, according to the IDPs.