HASAKAH, Syria (North Press) – In front of a classroom in a school in the city of Hasakah in northeast Syria, the wife prepares the meal on a primitive fire pit while the husband tries to rest himself of fatigue he incurred in looking for a job but noise made by children playing in the corridor disturbs him.
Abdulhamid al-Ali, an IDP from Sere Kaniye (Ras al-Ain) in the north of Hasakah, sits next to his wife meditating her condition and difficulties implied in sharing the school classrooms with IDP families in Abdulqader Saeed School in the neighborhood of Ghuweiran in the city of Hasakah, northeast Syria.
“We are not comfortable here. We share everything in the school; water and water closets in addition to loud noise made by children,” al-Ali told North Press.
However, suffering is not confined to such matters, as halt of support rendered by NGOs and al-Ali’s inability to secure his family’s needs aggravates his plight more which made him to ask the relevant authorities to be moved to a camp in the region but the option is no longer available.
In October 2019, Turkish military and its affiliated armed opposition factions, known as Syrian National Army (SNA), launched a military operation under the name of “Peace Spring” and occupied the border towns of Sere Kaniye and Tel Abyad, leading to the displacement of about 300.000 of the region’s original inhabitants.
Since then, the displaced people have been living in 50 schools in Hasakah and its countryside. Prior to the establishment of the two camps of Sere Kaniye and Washokani, the IDPs were living in nearly 70 schools.
Halt support
Nearly a year and a half ago, all NGOs and associations – except for Mar Afram and the Syrian Arab Red Crescent (SARC) – operating in northeast Syria halted support from IDPs living in schools.
The IDPs attribute the reason behind such a measure to pressure exerted from Hasakah Council and the Office of NGOs Affairs, affiliated with the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (AANES), to evacuate schools in order for the IDPs be moved to the camps of Sere Kaniye and Washokani.
Mar Afram provides “limited” cleaners to the IDPs once every four months while SARC provides a food basket –includes oil, sugar, rice and some kinds of cans – once every four months.
After the two aforementioned camps were established, a number of IDP families moved to them while others rejected the matter although the decision passed by the AANES cited the move was for the good flow of the educational process.
Locals are obliged to send their children to distant schools where IDPs are living in, and the teachers complain about that saying that it has negative impact on the students’ access to the information.
Now, owing to deteriorating living conditions and lack of humanitarian aid, the IDPs interviewed by North Press demand either to be transferred to the two allotted camps or that humanitarian relief aid be resumed.
Expressing his dismay, al-Ali said, “We just want a tent. Where could we go? No relief aid is being rendered nor could we move to camps.”
In the very same school, Sumaya al-Shihabi asked to be transferred to a camp. Though she previously knows life is difficult at camps but it is “better” than to live in schools with no aid.
Al-Shihabi, who descends from the city of Sere Kaniye, reassured that they have been demanding to be transferred to a camp for a year but to no avail.
No accommodation
From the other side of the story, Yilmaz Ahmad, an official in Sere Kaniye IDP camp, said, “There is no room to receive more families [in the camp].”
Ahmad added that dozens of IDP families do not have tents and share a tent with a relative of theirs. There is no capability to expand the camp.
In recent months, the camp received nearly a hundred family from the town of (Zirgan) Abu Rasin, north Hasakah, after their houses were destroyed in the repeated Turkish shelling, “NGOs have not rendered any help citing there is no [financial] capability or plans to render services to IDPs,” according to Ahmad.
In Washokani camp, west of Hasakah, Barzan Suleiman affirmed lack of tents and evasion by NGOs from their responsibilities precludes new admissions to the camps.
North Press contacted officials of the AANES to verify if there were plans to transfer IDPs from schools to camps or NGOs be allowed to render aid but they rejected to make commentary on the issue without giving reasons.
Sleeping mats for food
This status of the reality disturbs Abdullah Bilal, 48. The man fears the suffering last winter could be repeated more badly.
However, Bilal, who comes from the village of al-Amirat in the countryside of Sere Kaniye, has not received any winter protection equipment as other IDPs in the accommodation center.
Last year, Bilal, among others, had to wait long for receiving heating oil; the matter obliged him to buy it from the black market for 1.000 SYP per liter.
Bilal, who resides with his 8-membered family in Omar Ibn al-Khattab school in Ghuweiran neighborhood in Hasakah, said his living conditions do not allow him to purchase heating oil and other winter needs on his capacity.
However, Shama Diab’s family could not manage to buy heating oil from the black market last winter, “We used to protect ourselves by blankets against cold.”
Diab, whose family is composed of five members and live in Omar Ibn al-Khattab school, said that the IDPs sold sleeping mats and blankets to buy food for their children.
In an assumed classroom that once used to house students, Imad’s wife has tidied the kitchen room and matted a limited space of the room with blankets and sponges while the previous blackboard is being used for other things with nails.
Imad al-Saleh, 39, looks at those simple tools saying “These have only survived.”
Wondering about how he could manage himself for the approaching winter, the IDP who comes from al-Mahatta neighborhood in Sere Kaniye added,” I do not know what to say, you can see our situation, we need blankets, sponges, winter clothes and heating oil.”
Al-Saleh criticized evasion by NGOs, associations and the AANES of IDPs’ winter needs since the vast majority are suffering from dire conditions and cannot afford to meet their needs on their own capacities.
The man who looked older than he actually was said “I cannot afford to buy clothes for my children; hardly could I manage to feed them.”