RAQQA, Syria (North Press) – Wadha al-Hamada, an IDP woman in Raqqa Governorate, northern Syria, awaited the morning to re-install her patched tent which is made of fabric and gunny bags after rainwater leaked into it and collapsed by winds.
Wadha al-Hamada, 21, who resides in al-Younani IDP camp in the southern countryside of Raqqa, said, “This tent will not protect us from winter coldness.”
The woman gathers wood for cooking as she cannot afford to buy gas. Though her husband has a job to earn a living, they are burdened by difficulties in managing themselves owing to rocketing prices of foodstuff and lack of finances.
In this squatter camp, al-Hamada, among 270 other IDP families descending from areas under the control of Syrian government forces in the southern countryside of Raqqa and the countryside of Homs and Hama, share the same narration of the story winter after another. Torn and dilapidated tents cannot stand winds that tear up and eventually blow away tents.
When rainwater leaks, it soaks into sleeping mats and blankets. In such a case, days are needed for these blankets and sleeping mats to be dried under the sun, not to mention the compiling mug which makes movement almost impossible.
Sleeping under such tents is not secure at all; if a tent could avert a collapse by winds however, it could be reduced to ashes within seconds by a fire pit.
Semi-sponsored support
IDPs are unable to afford installing good tents with iron-made poles owing to deteriorating living conditions and lack of support.
In the meantime, they depend in heating and cooking on fire, where they collect wood from agrarian lands because they have not yet received their rations of heating diesel.
Early in October, Head of the Camps and Displaced Affairs Office in Raqqa Civil Council of the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (AASNES), Munawar Majed, said they were planning to integrate squatter camps in Raqqa into four camps to facilitate services after 58 camps were counted.
The Autonomous Administration supervises 16 camps in its areas, with a population of 150,000 people, in addition to dozens of squatter camps in the countryside of Raqqa, Deir ez-Zor, Tabqa and Manbij, according to the statistics of the Office of Humanitarian Affairs of the AANES.
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 SDF defeated ISIS militarily there.
Majed told North Press that a number of families in those camps reach more than 10.000, making all 70.000 individuals.
However, the AANES’s official did not set a timetable for putting that into operation, as IDPs are anticipating a winter similar to the last one.
IDPs in the camp complain about the lack of support and inaction by the concerned bodies and NGOs. Support is confined to the medication arena by a number of NGOs.
On June 20, the AANES stated that the IDPs living in squatter camps in Raqqa “are unsupported and live in dire conditions owing to deactivation by a number of humanitarian NGOs.”
North Press sought to interview other IDPs in the camp. However, they rejected the idea being losing hope that their words could make a difference as they have previously filed demands and complaints time and again to media outlets.
There are 58 squatter camps scattered in villages and towns of the countryside of Raqqa. They house nearly 90.000 IDPs making all 16.165 families, according to a figure obtained by North Press from the Camps and Displaced Affairs Office.
Fabric-made tents
On November 6, Ethan Goldrich, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs, said they were preparing long-term plans to fight terrorism and allocate a budget to support stability in northeastern Syria.
However, until that becomes a reality on the ground, Fatim al-Jaloud and her family would continue to live under a tent patched with torn fabric, spares and nylon sacks which made it a rainbow.
Wood collected by al-Jaloud, 31, did not preclude water to soak into the ground of the tent that extinguished the fire pit after the ground became imbibed with water.
The tent was installed in late summer after she collected fabric and nylon sacks from a garbage dump in the vicinity of al-Younani camp.
“Our houses [tents] are made of dirt and garbage. The situation in the camp deteriorates day after another,” she added.
“Our bread and food come short of our needs. We cannot afford anything. Look at the floating tent.”
To earn a living for her four children, she works on agrarian lands in the village of al-Kasrat close to the camp and earns a 1.000 SYP per hour.
However, such a kind of work is not a sustainable one for earning a living on permanent terms. The woman and her neighbors collect spares of plastic among others selling them to cover daily expenditures.
Al-Jaloud added that amid the difficult living conditions they do not receive any humanitarian aid or services. However, they earn their daily living from “little” sums of money in return for working in agrarian fields.
Al-Jaloud calls on NGOs to give a hand of help, “the camp has become mass grave for living persons,” she noted.