Iraqi refugees brave winter weather in Syrian camp

 

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region — This is the al-Hol Camp at Rajim Salibi village on the Iraq-Syria border. There are more than 10,000 refugees from Mosul and displaced people from Deir ez-Zur living here, of whom more than 3,000 are children who have become refugees because of the war.
 
A difficult and tiresome escape is awaiting the children still under ISIS rule before they can reach safety and peace. Yet they might not reach refuge safely.
 
“It was a painful journey to escape ISIS rule,” said a child refugee. “We traveled a long and difficult distance. Smugglers were asking for $300 to liberate each person. We travelled for 10 hours nonstop. We didn’t have food and water until we got to Rajim Salibi. A two-month-old baby died on the way due to illness and lack of medication.”
 
Dozens of people were beheaded and executed by ISIS in front of children. This became a daily routine, the children said.
 
These children are witnessing horrific events and enduring the consequences of war. Their parents’ only hope is to get them out of ISIS territory. 
 
“We fled Madan town which belongs to Deir ez-Zur province,” another Iraqi refugee in the camp said. “We walked through deserts to Rajim Salibi village. We were a number of families. It was very difficult for the women and kids.
 
“The health of the kids is very bad. One of our kids died of diarrhea. After staying at Rajim Salibi for 10 days, we were allowed to go to al-Hol camp. The conditions were a bit better there.”
 
Baghdad has promised to return these refugees to camps in Kirkuk and Salahaddin. According to UN and aid agencies around 50,000 Mosul residents have fled and sheltered into camps in Kurdish-controlled territories.
 
Tens of thousands of people fled Mosul just before and during the military campaign to retake Iraq’s second largest city from ISIS.
 
The United Nations built al-Hol Camp, which is in the southern suburbs of al-Hol, in 1991 during the Gulf War. It is now one of the busiest camps, accommodating the disabled, women, and children fleeing the Syrian Conflict.
 
Chief of Zonal Office UNICEF, North Zone, Iraq, Mawlid Warfa told Rudaw that in coordination with UNICEF offices in Syria, they provide help to the Iraqi refugees at the al-Hol camp.
 
“Once they are at the camp, definitely the agencies that are there should be responding and we will be coordinating with our UNICEF offices in Syria,” Warfa said.
 
He said it is very hard for the UN agencies to reach families who are fleeing Iraq towards Syria and most of them are near Tal Afar which the areas is under the control of ISIS.
 
“The movement of the people is very hard to control,” Warfa added. “Most of the people and the information we have is coming from areas that are north and northeast of Mosul. Areas close to Tal Afar and they go through the border of Syria. It is very difficult for anybody to trace them to track what they have got because the people are moving. They move through routes that we do not know how they go through. "