The Syrian Observatory For Human Rights

Idlib camps | Landowner of “Al-Farja” camp demands displaced people pay rent for his land, and gives nearly 100 displaced families notice until April to evacuate it

The makeshift camps are scattered in large numbers in the northern and western countryside of Idlib. These makeshift camps, which built with individual efforts by displaced people, suffer from a severe living and service conditions, as no kind of assistance is provided by humanitarian organizations operating in northern Syria.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights has monitored a major tragedy affecting the inhabitants of “Al-Farja” camp, which is located in the area of Kafr Losin in northern countryside of Idlib, one among dozens of small camps, where nearly 100 families are threatened with being evicted from the camp and seeking new shelter by the end of April 2021, after the landowner on which the camp was built demanded them pay the rent of his land amounting to $ 800.

In his testimony to the Syrian Observatory, one of the camp officials says: “About 100 displaced families from Sinjar area in south-east Idlib countryside live in the camp. The camp inhabitants suffer from a very difficult living and service conditions, especially in the winter and heavy rain.”

He added “The camp is not supported by any humanitarian organization and has not received any kind of assistance, and I have tried to communicate with many organizations and relief associations to explain them the critical situation we are living in, but we have received no response under the pretext that the camp is not belong to the management of the affairs of the displaced people, which manages the process of supporting the camps in the north of Syria”. 

In his testimony to the Syrian Observatory, an inhabitant of Al-Farja camp says “Most tents cannot be moved from this camp as they are badly damaged, and there is no other assistance provider and many families in the camp cannot afford to pay rent to the landowner, as the camp hosts many widows, patients and elderly people who can not secure their daily needs.”

All camp inhabitants in northern Syria are currently are living in a very difficult humanitarian situation, following the winter and heavy rain that have flooded many camps.

In addition to severe shortage of humanitarian assistance and the worsening of the service, health, education situations and other services.