Refugees struggle with deplorable conditions at Idlib camp
Syrians who fled intensive fighting between Daesh and Syrian regime forces in Raqqa struggle with life as refugees in Assalam camp which does not offer electricity, water, health care or schools.
A refugee from one of the provinces of Idlib cooks in front of her tent in a refugee camp in Atimeh, on the Syrian-Turkish border on October 23, 2012.
Syria's northern Idlib province has become the last major stronghold of opposition factions fighting the regime. It's also become home to thousands of displaced people – mostly Syrians, some from Iraq.
For the Syrians in Raqqa, escape was a must but the route to safety was dangerous.
"Daesh would put civilians in the targeted areas [by US-led coalition airstrikes] and then hide in the civilian homes," Um Alaa, a Syrian woman living in Assalam camp. "They stopped all the ways for people to flee."
Three of Um Alaa's daughters were injured in the crossfire as they escaped Raqqa. But now in Assalam camp, the family deals with a new set of life-threatening problems; there are no medical facilities.
Alaa travels a few kilometres each time to get medicine for her children.
Conditions in Assalam are growing increasingly dire. People do not have access to schools, health care, electricity or even potable water.
As war continues to ravage Syria and Iraq struggles with its Daesh problem, the camps keep swelling beyond capacity.
TRT World’s Abubakr al Shamahi speaks to Syrian and Iraqi refugees at Assalam camp in Idlib.
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