Harsh winter deteriorates life for refugees in northern Syria

Civilians in Syria’s north endure another winter under the harsh weather as heavy snowfall makes life more difficult for those living in makeshift tents.

After more than a decade of civil war in the country and the Syrian crisis has fallen off the agenda of the international community, Syrian civilians struggle amid worsening conditions, per Daily Sabah.

People that have left their homes because of the attacks of the Bashar Assad regime and its backers try to continue their lives in tent camps. Many roads have been closed because of the snow while tents collapsed in the face of the weather conditions.

One of the camp's residents in Syria’s Azaz province, Hasan Zeyd, told Anadolu Agency (AA) that families could not sleep because of the fear of the tents collapsing during the night.

Zeyd, who has been living with his family in the tent camp for three years, said: “While some are happy because of the snow, we endure difficulties. May Allah help us.”

Another resident, Ahmed Velid, displaced seven years ago from Aleppo, said: “I am living in this tent with my wife and two children. Some tents have collapsed because of the snow.”

Besides the risk of tents collapsing, another risk is that the effort of lighting fires to keep warm occasionally results in tents being burned while burnt commodities within tents, including old clothes, nylon and plastic, lead to various respiratory diseases such as asthma and bronchitis.

In freezing temperatures, children huddle together to warm up, burning pieces of plastic, old shoes, and scraps of wood they collect for kindling.

In a recent report on Syria, the United Nations said: “About 4.6 million people in north-west Syria are bracing for another cold winter season of flooding, snowstorms, and unpredictable weather events. In addition, 1.8 million people live in over 1,400 camps and sites ‘of last resort,’ most of which lack or have limited access to heating, electricity or water supply.”

People in the war-torn country’s northwestern Idlib similarly faced harsh conditions.

Seventy-six-year-old Meryem Halid told AA that she has been living in tents for four years under challenging conditions. She said that tents are flooded with water whenever there is rain. “Water piles up in the tent. I spend day and night in this bed. I do not have the financial means to buy a stove or firewood.”

Halid further explained that she frequently falls sick because of the winter conditions.

Another resident of a camp in Idlib, Mahmud Hussein, said that he and his family tried to get warm with blankets in the winter, but that rain made life more difficult.

“We try to sleep despite getting wet from the rain on rainy nights,” he said.

Also living in the camp, another 51-year-old resident said that meals cost around 50-60 Turkish liras while he lacks the income to buy anything. He said that he had a decent life before getting displaced, while he now has to worry daily about firewood and food.

“We try to get warm in the tent with a stove as four families. We cannot find firewood, and we do not have the means to buy another stove. We do not have the money to buy medicines for our sick children,” Hussein sighed.