Residents of Newroz camp in Derik fear coronavirus amid limited precautions

Derik – North-Press Agency

Solnar Muhammad

Unlike in other camps, the coronavirus has spread fear among the IDPs of Newroz camp, near the town of Derik in northeastern Syria. The preventative measures and the limited health assistance provided by the camp’s administration have not been able to calm the camp’s residents, while awareness campaigns and procedures to close the camp continue to prevent the spread of the virus to the camp.

Fattah Issa, an IDP from the town of Tal Abyad in northern Syria, said that he and his wife are afraid of catching coronavirus, especially because they are old.

Issa added that he was even afraid of visiting his son, who lives with seven other family members in a tent near him. "I have never seen an epidemic like this that has spread so quickly around the world, neighbors cannot visit each other and friends cannot meet.”

Zahida Ismail, an IDP from the Afrin region, northern Syria, said that several months ago they visited neighbors repeatedly, but after the spread of the coronavirus in the world and the emergence of cases in Syria, they became satisfied with just sitting in front of their tents.

While displaced people from Sere-Kaniye (Ras al-Ain) who came to the camp after Turkish forces and their affiliated armed groups took over their villages in November 2019, say that they remember their fear of insect bites at this time of the year when they were in their villages before displacement. However, they are now staying away from mixing, going to crowded places and paying more attention to their children's hygiene, fearing the infection.

Dejla Mohamed, an administrator in Newroz camp, said that they have taken preventative measures such as the ban on movement and preventing the displaced from going out, in addition to preventing the entry of people coming to visit, noting that they are facing difficulty in implementing these measures "because some of the IDPs are unable to endure it," she said.

Mohamed asked, "How can we prevent the epidemic from reaching us?" Children gather in groups and bathrooms are shared, and international organizations do not provide support except for some local organizations that have undertaken only one measure – sterilizing the camp. In addition to this, sterile materials have been distributed to the IDPs by SHAR for Development Organization.

Newroz camp for IDPs in Derik countryside includes 104 families who were displaced at different times and situations, most of them fled from the military invasions launched by the Turkish forces and their affiliated armed groups in Afrin, Tal Abyad, and Sere-Kaniye.
 

Dijwar Hasan, the administrator of SHAR Development Organization, said that they are working on implementing a project consisting of several activities in the camps in Derik and Hasakah, in cooperation with the Environmental Committee, the Municipal Authority and the Health Board of the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria, and the assistance of the Norwegian People's Aid, NPA.

Hasan indicated that their one-time sterilization of the camp was not enough, especially since it is crowded with IDPs and there is an urgent need to intervene before the spread of the virus pointing out that two days ago they distributed health materials and sterilizers including tissues, wet wipes, liquid soap for hand washing, masks and gloves to the IDPs of Newroz camp.

It is noteworthy that more than 2,200,000 people around the world have been infected with the coronavirus since it began spreading in China at the end of December 2019. More than 150,000 of them died in more than 212 countries, according to the U.S. Worldometer website.