The unemployment phenomenon, a renewed crisis plagues population of the Syrian north as employment opportunities continue to decline and poverty increases

With the situation of the large population inflation in the Syrian north due to the forced displacements, which have been carried out against thousands of civilians in provinces of the Syrian south and the recent displacement movement which is the largest of its kind; the youth unemployment phenomenon in the Syrian north has increased significantly in recent times, due to the lack of employment opportunities, and the decline in purchasing power of most of people of the Syrian north, this has had a negative impact on the young people made them suffer unemployment and extreme poverty.

And attempting to document this phenomenon, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights obtained through its activists testimonies from the area, regarding the widespread phenomenon of unemployment and its causes, one of the testimonies says: “After the large displacement in the de-escalation areas due to regime’s operation and its Russian ally, like Sahl al-Ghab area parts of which the regime has taken control of; thousands of displaced young people are living in a difficult and extremely poor situation, because of the lack of job opportunities in the areas to which they have been displaced, after they left their sources of income in their areas such as livestock farming and agriculture. There are no organizations that work on large-scale projects to employ a proportion of the young people who are currently unemployed, also the administrative corruption in the civil institutions of the Rescue Government is one of the reasons why so many young people who are qualified and have university degrees are sitting without a job, while those who have nepotism get jobs at these institutions even if they are not qualified for the job, and there is no official number for the unemployed people in the Syrian north of the northern and western countryside of Idlib, but in general, we can say that this phenomenon has become the biggest burden on civilians here, also the difficult living situation and the severe poverty of most of the Syrian north’s population have contributed to the expansion of unemployment, where the idea of opening a shop or trading any commodity is not a desirable one among the young people today, because of the decline of purchasing power, and we call on organizations of the international community, the humanitarian organizations, and local councils, to make an effort and launch projects to employ these unemployed young people and to provide the greatest number of opportunities, we also call for more administrative control over civil institutions and services to eliminate the negative phenomena, and to rid it of its widespread corruption.”

A civilian from Jabal Shashabo area in the western countryside of Hama -who is currently displaced in Harem town north of Idlib-, is one of the victims of the unemployment phenomenon, he says in his testimony to the Syrian Observatory: “I am 29 years old, with a university degree in an anesthesia specialist and I am the breadwinner for my family after my father was martyred and my older brother was arrested, and since 2017, I have been looking for a job in one of the medical facilities of the Syrian north, I have not left a hospital or a health center without applying for a job at them, but all my attempts have failed, and so far I am still a victim of unemployment, I started from the health centers and hospitals in Sahl al-Ghab area and Jabal Shashabo,  until I reached Harem town in the northern countryside of Idlib, and until now I have not been able to get a job, and all that is going on is routine contests to choose the right employee for a particular job, then the employee for this position is selected based on his nepotism or his proximity to the official of the hospital, not on basis of his experience and certificate, I now work as a worker with a daily wage of no more than 1500 Syrian pounds, I worked in olive picking, wood loading, vegetable market, and other work, and I am now working as an unpaid volunteer at Harem Hospital, to which I have displaced more than 6 months ago, so that I can continue to serve the sick and injured people, nothing more, solutions must be developed for this phenomenon, and some job opportunities must be created at least for the qualified people and university graduates, and I hope that we will get rid of this negative phenomenon soon.”