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BARDARASH, Kurdistan Region - Around 150 students are now missing their fourth year of school after fleeing a Turkish-led invasion in northeastern Syria (Rojava) along with their families in October 2019 and seeking shelter in the Kurdistan Region's Bardarash refugee camp.
The students cannot enroll in school because they are undocumented, a situation that local authorities in Duhok province say is out of their hands. However, does not apply to students in grades one to four who started school in the Kurdistan Region, only to those who had already started school back in Syria.
Fourteen-year-old Diyar Lazgin fled Sari Kani (Ras al-Ain) with his family when Turkey and its Syrian proxies attacked Kurdish forces in their hometown and neighboring Gire Spi (Tal Abyad).
"I want to go to school here because all of my friends go to school, only I do not," undocumented Lazgin told Rudaw’s Halabja Sadoun on Monday. "In Rojava I wanted to become a doctor, but how can I become a doctor if I don't go to school."
Parents who are apprehensive about their children continuing to miss out on education say they have several times checked with Kurdish education officials in Hasakah, but were told all of their documents had been destroyed in Sari Kani during the fighting.
"Students must bring their documents from the place where they studied, or they will not be enrolled in school. Concerning students who were from grades 5 to 12 [in Syria], the decision is not in [our hands]. They should communicate with the [KRG's] Council of Ministers through the UN until a special decision is made for them to continue their studies," Mehdi Khalil Amin, head of the Bardarash Education Directorate told Rudaw.
Ankara considers Kurdish forces in Rojava a threat to its national security and has conducted two major military operations against them, one in Afrin in 2018 and the second on Sari Kani and Gire Spi where it wanted to push Kurdish forces back from its border. The offensive ended with ceasefires brokered by the United States and Russia that ceded control of the two towns to Turkey.
According to United Nations figures, there are 2.5 million Syrian children who are not in school after a decade of conflict.
The students cannot enroll in school because they are undocumented, a situation that local authorities in Duhok province say is out of their hands. However, does not apply to students in grades one to four who started school in the Kurdistan Region, only to those who had already started school back in Syria.
Fourteen-year-old Diyar Lazgin fled Sari Kani (Ras al-Ain) with his family when Turkey and its Syrian proxies attacked Kurdish forces in their hometown and neighboring Gire Spi (Tal Abyad).
"I want to go to school here because all of my friends go to school, only I do not," undocumented Lazgin told Rudaw’s Halabja Sadoun on Monday. "In Rojava I wanted to become a doctor, but how can I become a doctor if I don't go to school."
Parents who are apprehensive about their children continuing to miss out on education say they have several times checked with Kurdish education officials in Hasakah, but were told all of their documents had been destroyed in Sari Kani during the fighting.
"Students must bring their documents from the place where they studied, or they will not be enrolled in school. Concerning students who were from grades 5 to 12 [in Syria], the decision is not in [our hands]. They should communicate with the [KRG's] Council of Ministers through the UN until a special decision is made for them to continue their studies," Mehdi Khalil Amin, head of the Bardarash Education Directorate told Rudaw.
Ankara considers Kurdish forces in Rojava a threat to its national security and has conducted two major military operations against them, one in Afrin in 2018 and the second on Sari Kani and Gire Spi where it wanted to push Kurdish forces back from its border. The offensive ended with ceasefires brokered by the United States and Russia that ceded control of the two towns to Turkey.
According to United Nations figures, there are 2.5 million Syrian children who are not in school after a decade of conflict.
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