The Syrian army is getting its hands on new-looking EU-branded trucks. An undercover investigation found evidence of a secretive supply chain routing vehicles from Europe to Syria through neighboring countries such as Jordan and Lebanon.

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The 6 February earthquake caused widespread destruction over a large area of southern Turkey and northwestern Syria.

Within Syria, the worst-hit region was the opposition-held enclave, including Idlib and parts of Aleppo province, where at least 4,191 people were killed, according to the Syrian Network for Human Rights (SNHR).

In government-controlled areas, the death toll was at least 394 people, with most of those deaths reported in the town of Jableh in Latakia province, according to SNHR.

Other sources put the death toll in Syria even higher. A UN spokesperson told Siraj that at least 6,000 people had died in the country. The International Medical Corps said in April that 7,259 people were confirmed killed in Syria.

After more than a decade of war, the opposition-held region was already in a state of humanitarian crisis, with a population of 4.6 million swollen by those displaced from other areas by the conflict and aid deliveries into the enclave long restricted to a single border crossing from Turkey.

Search and rescue efforts after the earthquake largely relied on volunteers from the Syria Civil Defence, the so-called White Helmets who for years have operated as a de facto emergency service in opposition-held areas pummelled by air strikes and shelling.

Footage showed White Helmets volunteers and others desperately searching for survivors by digging through rubble with their hands and basic tools, highlighting the lack of specialist equipment and the improvised nature of the rescue effort.

“After the earthquake, I evacuated my three daughters from the house to the car and didn’t see them for five days,” said Ahmad Yaziji, a member of the Idlib branch of the Syria Civil Defence.

“Several other volunteers left the evacuation areas in order to bury their loved ones before rapidly returning to the rescue. There were so many locations where people were still alive and trapped under the rubble.”

According to the Syria Civil Defence, its volunteers rescued 2,950 people from the rubble and retrieved the bodies of 2,172 people from 182 sites.

The lack of an immediate UN-coordinated response prompted angry criticism from Raed al-Saleh, the head of the Syria Civil Defence.

Saleh told Siraj his organisation had sent distress calls to the UN on the day of the earthquake requesting the deployment of specialist rescue teams.

Opposition authorities including the Salvation Government, the civil administration in Idlib backed by the dominant Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) militant group, and the Turkish-backed Syrian Interim Government in Azaz also requested international assistance.

“Let me be clear: The White Helmets received no support from the United Nations during the most critical moments of the rescue operations,” Saleh wrote in an opinion piece for CNN one week after the earthquake.

“The UN’s failure to respond quickly to this catastrophe is shameful. When I asked the UN why help had failed to arrive in time, the answer I received was bureaucracy. In the face of one of the deadliest catastrophes to strike the world in years, it seems the UN’s hands were tied by red tape.”

The critical importance of a quick response after an earthquake is embedded in search and rescue best practice.

In Turkey there were more than 7,800 live rescues within 24 hours of the earthquake. Despite a massive international effort, only 260 people were rescued alive over the next eight days.

In opposition-held Syria, the situation was very different. Families of some of the victims interviewed by Siraj have described hearing voices trapped under collapsed buildings for several days.

They believe their loved ones and many more lives could have been saved if rescue teams with appropriate equipment had been quickly deployed.

Muhammad al-Mustafa, 32, from the town of Jindires near the Turkish border, said he had to listen helplessly to the cries of his two-year-old son Wafeek and other members of his family trapped under the ruins of their home.

“It was like doomsday,” said Mustafa. “I remember how the voices started to fade on the second day. We couldn’t get them out on our own. There was so much rubble we needed specialist equipment.”

A search team eventually retrieved the bodies of Mustafa’s wife, son, parents and three siblings.

“The fact I could hear my child pleading for me to save him while I was unable to do so devastated me the most,” said Mustafa.

Similarly tragic scenes were playing out in towns and villages across the northwest.

In Bseenah, near Salqin in northwest Idlib province, 39-year-old Rami al-Abdullah said he could hear the screams of his wife and eldest daughter trapped under the rubble for two days after the quake. Only his one-and-a-half-year-old son was eventually pulled out alive.

“The whole village was demolished, and the Civil Defence could not reach everyone and save them,” said Abdullah. “Residents were trying to help, but they were afraid of aftershocks and new collapses.”

‘Coordination mechanisms’

The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (Ocha) operates an international emergency response system with the capacity to send rescue teams anywhere in the world within hours of a disaster.

The two main organisations, described by Ocha as “coordination mechanisms”, within this system are United Nations Disaster and Coordination (Undac) and the International Search and Rescue Advisory Group (Insarag).

Undac’s responsibilities include assessing and coordinating emergency response missions, while Insarag is a network of search and rescue teams from 90 UN member states and international organisations.

Undac and Insarag typically send teams into disaster zones at the request of a government. But UN guidelines also allow for rescue efforts to be initiated by a UN resident coordinator in the affected country.

According to several sources who spoke to Siraj, including el-Mostafa Benlemlih, the UN’s resident coordinator in Syria until earlier this month, the Syrian government did file a request to the UN for help, but this was limited to government-controlled areas.

Benlemlih, who spoke to Siraj while he was still in the role, described Undac’s work as a “complement to national efforts”.

“The Undac team was deployed as soon as they received a request from the usual channels [the Syrian government]. The team was deployed to assess the situation in Aleppo, Latakia, Tartous, Homs and Hama,” said Benlemlih.

Asked why Undac had not deployed to opposition-held areas, Benlemlih said the UN had been “fully prepared to support those affected in Idlib and [opposition-held areas of] Aleppo”.

But he added: “However, the activation of the response system is linked to the approval of the concerned authorities, and is also linked to the provision of mechanisms to support logistical work and protection. These conditions were not available even for the humanitarian support we tried to deliver in the first hours of the disaster.”

Earlier this month, the UN named Adam Abdelmoula as its new residential coordinator in Syria.

Documents obtained by Siraj also show UN and Syrian officials discussed sending aid convoys – but not search and rescue teams – into opposition-held areas in the days after the earthquake.

But no convoys were sent across the front line. According to Reuters, the delivery of aid from government-held areas was opposed by HTS.

Details about Insarag’s response within Syria, and issues which hindered the UN rescue effort in the country, were discussed at a meeting of Insarag team leaders in Singapore on 28 February.

Search and rescue teams from Russia, Lebanon and the United Arab Emirates were deployed to Latakia, and teams from Tunisia, Armenia, Algeria and China were deployed to Aleppo, according to a presentation delivered at the meeting.

But challenges faced by Undac and Insarag included a “lack of awareness of the Government of Syria of the international response mechanisms” and the “lack of a basic structure to receive and coordinate international assistance including USAR [urban search and rescue]”.

Team leaders complained that coordination had been complicated by the involvement of multiple entities, including civil defence, the Syrian Arab Red Crescent and national security, and by an “inconsistent approach of LEMA [local emergency management agency] in assigning USAR teams to geographic sectors”.

The Syrian government had not responded at the time of publication to questions from Siraj and MEE about why it had not asked for international rescue teams to be deployed to opposition-controlled areas.

In response to questions about why Undac and Insarag teams were not deployed into opposition-held Syria, Jens Laerke, a spokesperson for Ocha, said the deployment of search and rescue teams through Insarag was a matter for national governments rather than the UN.

Laerke said: “To be clear, the United Nations does not have search-and-rescue capabilities, including heavy machinery, nor does it decide which teams deploy to which countries for how long.”

Ocha’s role through Undac, he said, was limited to coordinating the work of search and rescue teams and sharing updates about casualties, damage and requests for assistance.

“While the UN can decide where to deploy its own staff, the decision to deploy national search-and-rescue teams rests solely with the national governments of those teams,” said Laerke.

‘Speed is critical’

Yet the failure of the UN to coordinate the deployment of search and rescue teams into opposition-controlled areas appears to fall short of Undac’s own guidelines on responding to “complex emergencies”, such as in countries in a state of civil war.

These guidelines are contained in the Undac Handbook, a reference guide for Undac team members involved in emergency missions.

The handbook acknowledges that the sovereignty and territorial integrity of states must be fully respected, and that humanitarian assistance should be provided with the consent of the affected country.

But it makes an exception in circumstances in which “the legitimacy and territory of the State is under, often violent, dispute”.

The guidance reads: “This situation makes the adherence to the above principles problematic in complex emergencies. In these cases the commitment to the victims may supersede the commitment to the State.”

The handbook advises that “coordination efforts will need to acknowledge the legitimacy of competing authorities [and]… maintain effective relationships not only with the State but also with the antagonists and political opposition”.

It stresses, too, the urgency of deploying emergency teams as quickly as possible, particularly in the aftermath of an earthquake.

“In a natural disaster speed of response is critical and is measured in hours and days. This is especially so in an earthquake situation where trapped people are unlikely to survive more than 3-4 days unless rescued.”

According to one legal expert, the Syrian government’s failure to request or facilitate the deployment of rescue teams to opposition-held territory may be in breach of principles of international humanitarian law established through the Geneva Conventions guaranteeing access to conflict zones for humanitarian actors.

“If the Syrian authorities refused these teams entry into areas beyond their control, this is an arbitrary rejection prohibited by international law,” said Sama Kiki, executive director of the Syrian Legal Development Programme, a UK-based legal advocacy organisation.

Kiki added that a periodically renewed UN Security Council resolution permitting humanitarian aid to be sent into northwest Syria from Turkey through the Bab al-Hawa crossing offered a further legal avenue, and an established route, for Undac and Insarag teams to be deployed into opposition territory.

Bodies instead of aid

The situation in northwest Syria was in stark contrast to the UN response in southern Turkey, where Insarag deployed 221 search and rescue teams from 82 countries in support of the rescue effort by Turkey’s own disaster agency (Afad), according to documents reviewed by Siraj.

In Idlib, the only international response in the days after the earthquake was a visit by a three-person Spanish team who crossed into Syria through Bab al-Hawa on 9 February independently of the UN aid effort.

Mazen Aloush, the media officer for the crossing, said the visit had been coordinated by a Salvation Government charitable support coordination office. It lasted only a few hours and was limited in its scope to assessing the damage, Aloush said.

Muhammad al-Sadiq, a Salvation Government spokesperson, said the Spanish team had trained local volunteers to use a sensor device to detect people still alive under the rubble.

No other equipment was provided, and hopes of finding any further survivors had by then mostly faded.

The Syria Civil Defence head Saleh told Siraj that assessment teams from a number of UN agencies finally entered opposition-held Syria six days after the earthquake.

“These were needs assessment teams, and not search and rescue,” Saleh said.

“After six days people had already died. No one was left from those who were alive.”

Those critical of the UN’s failure to send search and rescue teams and heavy-duty rescue equipment into Idlib through Bab al-Hawa question remarks, made by UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on 9 February, in which he said damage to roads leading to the crossing had hindered the aid effort.

According to Aloush, the spokesperson for Bab al-Hawa, within hours of the earthquake the bodies of Syrians killed in Turkey were being delivered to the border post.

“On the evening of the same day, we received cars carrying bodies from all the stricken Turkish provinces without any problem on the roads,” he said.

Border crossing authorities reported 85 bodies delivered to Bab al-Hawa one day after the earthquake, with the number rising over the next few days to more than 1,200. Photos and videos posted on social media showed some of these bodies being delivered on flatbed trucks.

Laerke, the Ocha spokesperson, told Siraj that cross-border aid into northwest Syria had been briefly suspended due to road damage and because of casualties and injuries among staff at a UN aid hub in Reyhanli.

The failings of the UN response were frankly acknowledged by Martin Griffiths, the UN humanitarian relief chief, during a visit to Bab al-Hawa on 12 February.

“We have so far failed the people in northwest Syria. They rightly feel abandoned. Looking for international help that hasn’t arrived,” Griffiths wrote in a tweet.

“My duty and our obligation is to correct this failure as fast as we can. That’s my focus now.”

The following day, Griffiths was in Damascus for talks with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. Soon afterwards, two more border crossings from Turkey into opposition-held northwest Syria had opened for the delivery of humanitarian aid.

Fadel Abdul Ghany, the chairman of the Syrian Network for Human Rights, said that serious questions remained unanswered about the failure of the UN to deploy search and rescue teams into opposition-held territory.

“There was negligence on the part of the United Nations,” he said. “This is incomprehensible, unjustified, immoral and illegal.”

Ghany believes that at least dozens of lives could have been saved if the UN had taken prompt and decisive action. He said he had called on the UN to conduct an internal investigation but had not received a response.

UN officials, he said, had talked at length about the mechanisms and details of the earthquake response, but without providing adequate answers as to what had gone wrong.

“In the end, all of these mechanisms failed,” said Ghany.

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In Idlib’s countryside, elderly residents of informal camps are deprived of primary healthcare services, usually offered by makeshift hospitals, and quarantine facilities, which camp areas lack. The situation corresponds to increasing concerns over the outbreak since the first positive case was announced on 10 July 2020 by the Minister of Health of the Syrian Interim Government, who constantly posts updated case figures. In areas held by the Syrian regime, cases are also on the rise, amounting to 417, according to the Ministry of Health. Furthermore, cases throughout Syria are being tracked by the World Health Organization (WHO), which reports new confirmed cases, as well. 

The United Nations (UN), for its part, warned against a healthcare catastrophe if the pandemic continues to spread significantly in north Syria, given the failing healthcare system, shortage for ventilators, and other supplies necessary for combating COVID-19. Moreover, the UN designated $385 millions to cover additional 2020 needs, as to cope with the pandemic in the full range of Syria.

Nonetheless, it appears that the UN warnings are in no way close to being heeded.

Suffering from diabetes and hypertension, Badriyah is fretting over contracting coronavirus, saying that she is regularly feverish due to the extremely hot weather. This had her obsessed, particularly with the surge in confirmed cases.  

Like most of the elderly in the informal camps, Badriyah complains about the absence of healthcare facilities, while test centres are tens of kilometres away from the camp where she lives. The situation is made further complicated by extreme poverty and the people’s inability to reach these centres to conduct the necessary texts or purchase preventative needs.

Camps off preventative formworks

One-third of Idlib’s population lives in tents, urging Cristian Reynders, Doctors without Borders (MSF) field coordinator for northwest Syria, to say that indeed, most recommendations for protecting people against the virus and slowing down its spread simply cannot be implemented in Idlib. He, furthermore, raised an ethical question, that probably will remain unanswered: “People are also asked to practice good hygiene measures and wash their hands frequently. But how can you practice good hygiene when you live surrounded by mud?”

Sharing Reynders’ thoughts on the matter, Ahmad al-Dabis, UOSSM Syria Program director,  told the reporter that: “Preventative measures cannot be maintained in the camps, for they are extremely crowded. Moreover, the personal hygiene-related preventative rules cannot be kept due to lacking water, sanitation and joint bathrooms, which do not adhere to requirements. This applies to villages and cities alike, for there are group housing places that cannot be controlled, not to mention that thousands of families are coerced to share one or two rooms with one or more families.”

UOSSM is a non-government union for relief and healthcare organizations, registered in Turkey, UK, US, Canada, France, Germany, Netherlands and Switzerland.

Displaced from southern rural Idlib, Abu Ahmad (64) lives in an informal camp near the Turkish border. He does not show the slightest interest in our COVID-19-related questions after the first positive case was reported in north Syria. He is, rather, busy counting the money he made today for working on a nearby farm. “We do not care about Corona any more. Even without it, we were barely having enough food. Anyways, we are almost dead,” he said. “How could we keep preventative rules? Is it with masks, sanitizers and detergents that cost a fortune, or with dirty shared bathrooms? Or should we do it with water that we do not really have?” 

On his turn, Yakoub Murad, a Syrian doctor based in the Turkish city of Reyhanlı, explained that to boost the immune system, older people need to eat various types of healthy food, maintain psychological stability, and keep away from stress and anxiety. Even upon contracting the virus, they have to uphold the same measures. However, none of these requirements can be met in the camps, for living conditions are pretty challenging there, at the villages also, including that mad rise in prices and lacking emotional stability caused by military operations and constant displacement.  

 Nursing homes in the clutches of fear

Mustafa al-Nasser (63), originally a resident of Damascus, has been living in Dar al-Salama Nursing Home in Azaz City, northern rural Aleppo,  for three years, after he lost his family, wife and three children in the military combat in 2012. “I am scared that the disease might spread here as well. I quit going outside altogether. I no longer shake hands, and I frequently wash my hands.  I am not sure when the disease will disappear, but I always wonder, what would happen to me if I caught the virus? What if I needed healthcare?” he said. 

Founded in 2013, the nursing home was a mere tent, with a capacity to accommodate nine persons. In early 2018, however, the nursing home was moved to a four-room-building, with utilities. Today, the home can host 18 to 25 persons, along with six staffers.

Ziad Najar, the nursing home director, stressed that the management was keen on adopting preventative measures against COVID-19, including disinfecting the building, distributing masks, washing clothes on a regular basis and preventing elderly from mixing with strangers. A number of the inmates are mentally-disordered, who cannot be controlled in terms of hygiene and social distancing, while tightness of space continues to give them a hard time, he added.

The nursing home does not receive stable funding from any entity, Najar reported, and it is completely dependent on personal donations, adding that the home is today deficient and burdened with debts. Asking the director about potential COVID-19 positive cases, he said: “Inmates are transferred to the nearby International Blue Crescent Hospital once suspected of contracting the virus. But still, we are not sure how we will manage if cases continue to increase.”

 In north Syria, places such as first-class nursing homes do not exist. Rather, there are big and modestly furnished houses, occupied by elderly and persons with disabilities, which are operated through personal donations only, spreading in Salqin, Azaz, and al-Dana, among other areas. In the strip between rural Aleppo and Idlib, where four million persons at least live, quarantine facilities are either lacking or are not properly equipped to accommodate elederly, who might contract the virus. 

Fear and concern necessitate unity

Difficulties suffered by elederly and nursing homes in north Syria almost match those endured by old people in the northeastern parts of the country,  particularly in al-Hasaka and Raqqa, where the Women’s Committee of the Autonomous Administration supervises nursing homes. 

In Rmelan, far east of Syria, officials, running the Viyan (Emarah) Elderly Women Nursing Home, are also facing COVID-19 severe repercussions and its ever increasing threat, amidst shortage for supplies and medicaid. 

Opened in March 2016, the nursing home has the capacity to accommodate 10 women only, and it is run by four women staffers, who take turns around the clock. 

“Even staffers must adhere to certain daily measures. They have to change their clothes upon entering the nursing home, for instance. They also have to keep their hands sanitized and masks on all the time. Furthermore, they are on a diet, drinking lots of liquids and eating fruits, to boost their immune system in case an outbreak occurs,” Najah, a supervisor at the nursing home, said. 

 Family visits are also conditioned by a set of preventative measures, which the home adopts to protect the eledrly women, including social distancing, wearing masks, disinfecting hands and keeping a safe distance as a basis to prevent the transmission of the virus. 

“A major difficulty that we constantly face is that eledrely women have their families in mind all the time. One woman, for example, asks her son to come and see her regularly; another asks her daughter to do so; a third would miss having her sisters around. We, thus, ask family members to visit the elederly women at their request. When the latter meet their relatives, the emotions we get to feel cannot simply be put into words,” Najah added. 

insufficient awareness and prevention 

Addressing responsive action in the area, Dr. Ahmad al-Dabis pointed out to the awareness campaigns launched by UOSSM, which target locals in the suburbs of Aleppo and Idlib, adding that masks, disinfectants, sinitizers, and gloves were distributed at the camps, particularly to the most vulnerable groups, including elderly and people suffering from chronic diseases, such as  diabetes, cancer, asthma and  hepatitis. The population is massive and the demand is overwhelming, al-Dabis said, stressing that UOSSM’s response covers very little of the humanitarian needs of four million civilians in the area. 

Suffering thus at the camps, some hundred thousand internally displaced persons (IDPs) decided to abandon the tents and head back to their destroyed homes, mostly located near fronts or war lines, one of whom was Abu Muhammad. The sixty-something man went back to his home in Taftanaz city, rural Idlib. Having returned, Abu Muhammad told the reporter that he is not scared of the disease anymore, for he washes frequently to perform prayers.  At the same time, he noted that no leaflets were distributed, nor prevention-aimed awareness campaigns were launched to address the disease, adding that he performs group prayers everyday because the pandemic has not spread in the city yet. Furthermore, staying in his city, despite the danger and the bombing, is better than being displaced at the camps, where preventive measures and healthcare services are nonexistent, he said, especially that at a certain point he was coerced to share the same room with 13 other people when he was still at the camp. 

Interviewed in Taftanz city too, Basheer al-Khatib, seventy-something, said that he tries to keep a distance from people with flue, refrains from showing up at public gathering places and tight spaces were people tend to assemble, stressing that no prevention-awareness campaigns are addressing the disease, despite the large population density. Masks or disinfectants were not distributed, as well. 

Almost in all the cities in north Syria, bazzars, popular markets opened on specific days of the week, were still being held when the report was being prepared, and no decisions were passed as to officially prevent such gatherings. 

The Early Warning Alert and Response Network (EWARN), a local healthcare group operating in north Syria, posted counsel and guidance to help edlerly protect themselves from contracting COVID-19, including washing hands, avoiding large-scale gatherings and staying away from people showing symptoms of any illnesses. 

Moreover, the EWARN stressed that diabetic people must ont skip their medications and that they should closely monitor their blood glucose, adding that people should immediately seek medical assistance upon coughing, having a fever or shortness of breath, pointing that asthma patients must keep inhalers close by. Cancer patients, the group advised, must also seek medical assistance upon coughing, having a fever or shortness of breath, accentuating that keeping these measures is a necessity, for no vaccine or treatment has been developed to counter COVID-19 so far. 

Healthcare facilities out of service

In northwest Syria, namely Idlib and rural Aleppo, medical supplies are very few, for healthcare sectors were systematically targeted by Russia and the Syrian regime in early 2020. The military campaigns rendered about 70% of the healthcare facilities out of service, estimated at 75 makeshift medical posts, either dispensaries or hospitals, that were inoperable partially or completely. Additionally, a number of facilities were turned unserviceable when controlled by the regime’s forces.  

This situation, UOSSM reported, led to the collapse of the already over stretched  healthcare system. There are 200 intensive care beds, and only 100 ventilators for more than four million people, which are extremely insufficient to accommodate Covid-19 patients, especially since these modest numbers of beds and ventilators are already in use, accommodating cancer, trauma, and wounded patients, as well as those with cardiac and liver diseases.  

The Ministry of Health of the Syrian Interim Government, for its part,  stated that since it first started to conduct Covid-19 tests last March, about three thousand people were examined, as they were suspected of being infected with the virus, adding that most of the tests were carried out at a single testing center and using the only device available.  Confirmed cases in the target areas amounted to 12, when the investigation was being conducted on 18 July.

Alarming scenarios

On 7 May 2020, a predictive report, obtained by the reporter, prepared by the Health Information Unit (HIS) of the Health Directorates in northwest Syria, in cooperation with a number of Syrian and international experts, showed that either of the three following scenarios lies ahead of the area.

The first scenario expects that in the eighth week into the outbreak, positive cases will jump to 16,384, while 2,458 cases will need hospitalization. The severe cases, however, that require admittance into intensive care and ventilators will be 819.

In the eighth week, the second scenario expects, positive cases will mount to 185,364, including 9,268 requiring intensive care and ventilators.

As for the third scenario, it focuses on the status of the population most in need, namely the newly displaced and elderly, whose number amounts to 1.2 million. This scenario expects that in the sixth week, the number of cases will reach 240,000 in the camps alone, 12,000 of which will require intensive care and ventilators. 

Given these alarming predictions and the scarce resources of the healthcare sector, elderly will be in a battle with the pandemic, unprotected and uncared for, particularly those living in the camps. 

During the latest military campaign, which Russian and regime forces embarked on in early 2020, about one million Syrians from Hama, Idlib and Aleppo suburbs were displaced to separate areas of northwest Syria, bringing the total number of displaced people there to 1.4 million, according to statistics issued by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in May 2020. These people reside either in uninhabitable homes or in official or otherwise unofficial camps, most of which lack all life’s essentials, thus, turning them into the most vulnerable group to contract Covid-19, since the random environment and absence of hygiene measures, drinking and household water, and disinfectants make the area an ideal incubator for the the virus to spread, as reported by the HIS of health directorates in Idlib. 

In a tweet, Mark Cutts,  the UN deputy regional humanitarian coordinator, warned against a modest response to the predicted health disaster, which he attributed to the reduced number of authorized crossings for the crossborder response into northwest Syria, decided by the Security Council in its recent meeting on the means of delivering humanitarian aid to north Syria. 

The warning was also echoed by Dr. Muhammad al-Issa, the health official of SAMS office in Turkey (the Syrian American Medical Society), who said that the pre-Covid-19 health status  was already critical and that people with chronic diseases were not fully provided with needed healthcare services. If the pandemic spreads, some healthcare facilities might turn inoperable, unable to provide primary services necessary to combat the outbreak, which places north Syria before a new healthcare dilemma.  

Regarding SAMS precautionary measures, al-Issa added that it has conducted (online) training, preparing many medical staffers to cope with COVID-19, and set up three quarantine facilities, in addition to the logistic support it provided to healthcare facilities as to help them affront all outbreak forms, explaining that the healthcare sector in Syria ranks as low as the second place out of five, the thing that keeps it out of  international top ratings. 

Given that situation, while UN and non-government organizations fail to answer the needs reported above, Badriyah will continue to be caged by fear, and hundreds of thousands of old people will be having an unfair battle against a fatal pandemic that might bring them to their demise.

The Syrian Investigative Reporting for Accountability Journalism (SIRAJ)

Accounts addressing northeast Syria were obtained by colleague Rusheen Habo, based in al-Qamishli. 

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Using the trick successfully, Aiysha convinced her son (5) to keep the preventative rules. Nonetheless, the trick failed to mitigate the negative impact the measures addressing the virus, the ensuing lockdown and curfew, had on his life. Hussain’s personality was a lot different. He was psychologically shaken, turned irritable, and demanding. With a restless sleep, Hussain was less active at home and withdraw into his world on the second month of the lockdown.

Aiysha’s trick proved a successes at her home, but it failed to help Abu Rida, who lives with his sex children at a three square meter tent, surrounded by jammed tents at every side. The forty-something man heard that COVID-19 has arrived in Northern Syria; however, he could do nothing to protect his family.

1/3 of Syria’s children were deprived of education due to war; a larger proportion has been even denied necessary healthcare services.

UNICEF

In Syria, COVID-19 cases started to surge, while real case numbers were kept a secret amidst poor protective and preventative measures, as well as treatment efforts. Thus ominous, the situation threatens Syrians with a scenario that might bear a striking resemblance to the one suffered by Italy.

With its symptoms, the many people it rendered dead, the following closure of schools, curfews and bans on leaving home, COVID-19 had affected children in ways of dire consequences, which psychologists believe might be of a long-term.

Medically speaking, international studies concluded that infected children might show COVID-19 symptoms, including fever and high temperature. Even though children are less vulnerable to testing positive, Syria is currently witnessing large outbreaks. To date, there are no clear estimates of the pandemic’s spread, nor reports of child infections throughout the country, which might be attributed to the fragility of the healthcare system and shortage for diagnostic tests and laboratory equipment, which absence plays a key role in the underdiagnosis of cases.

Furthermore, interviews conducted with families throughout Syria point out the wide lifestyle gap between children from various geographical backgrounds. Children in the capital Damascus, for instance, have a different life from their peers in Northern Syria’s camps, where they are subjected to unmatching economic and social conditions, as well as different housing and living modes, let alone the environment-related discrepancies.

Given the current situation, psychologists are actually urging parents to maintain their calm and low stress levels, for children do mimic their actions.

2.6 million children have been forcibly displaced. About two million children are out of school. 3 out of 10 schools in Syria are destroyed or unusable.

– Human Rights Watch, 13 March 2020

 

“We know the poorest, most marginalised children who were already the furthest behind have suffered the greatest loss, with no access to distance learning – or any kind of education – for half an academic year,” Save The Children chief executive Inger Ashing said.

On the whole, this applies to all children around the world, but it, particularly, does not pertain to Syrian children, whose living conditions are largely different from children in other countries, as they have been doomed to lose a lot during the conflict.

According to a UNICEF report, one-third of Syria’s children were deprived of education due to war; a larger proportion has been even denied necessary healthcare services.

The Syrian Network for Human Rights, on its turn, documented the death of 29,296 children at the hands of main actors in Syria between March 2011 and last June.

Moreover, in a report entitled “They have erased the dreams of my children,” the Commission of Inquiry for Syria outlined multiple blatant right violations children have been subjected to, including death, miming, injury, orphaning, deprivation of education, and enduring the myriad violations by warring parties, as well as the displacement of over five million children, internally and abroad, over the course of the war.

The report, including interviews with more than five thousand children, witnesses, relatives of survivors and medical staffers conducted between 2011 and October 2019, states that “pro-Government forces have also deployed cluster munitions, thermobaric bombs and chemical weapons, claiming dozens of children casualties.”

Rape and sexual violence have been also used against men, women, boys and girls as a tool to punish, humiliate and instil fear among affected communities. On top of this bitter reality, which Syrian children are coerced to endure, here comes COVID-19 to rub salt in their wounds.

It is necessary to block rumours and inform children only of facts available on the Internet and social networking sites, to help them resist stress, particularly with the criticism aimed at governments that announce the daily number of cases, a thing that boosts anxiety and tension.

 “On top of displacement,” here comes COVID-19

Ibrahim (13) was displaced a few months ago from the city of Saraqib, rural Idlib. Fleeing the shelling and the battles, he sought refuge in a small village east of Idlib. As if it was not enough that he lost his home, school and friends, cases of COVID-19 started emerging, destining him for heavier losses. Once again, Ibrahim was deprived of school and playing football, among many other things.

“As the coronavirus hit Idlib, my son’s life changed drastically. He was not allowed leaving home, going to school or the park, and playing with his friends,” Hussain’s father Jihad al-Ibrahim said, adding that it was displacement first, and then came the virus. Both have changed the child’s lifestyle.

Before COVID-19, his son went to school, had fun with friends and moved around freely. All of a sudden, everything stopped.

Of the most critical psychological effects that Ibrahim suffered were excessive irritation, spending long hours on the Internet and video games, according to his father, who added that: “He was awake till five in the morning, playing video games and surfing the Internet and slept for most of the daytime. He also asked me to by him an up to date cellophane so he could play PUBG.”

Ibrahim said that he used to meet his friends after school every day. They would gather somewhere and then play football. Nonetheless, he cannot do this today, while also robbed of the chance to spend summer at the town of Darkoush, western rural Idlib, expressing his great desire to enjoy all these activities when COVID-19 risk disappears.

In a report published on 13 March 2020, Human Rights Watch stated that 2.6 million children have been forcibly displaced. About two million children are out of school. Three out of 10 schools in Syria are destroyed or unusable.

Furthermore, the report noted that four out of five people in Syria live below the poverty line, leading to recruitment into fighting, child labor, and child marriage.

Horrified Children

When the Coronavirus pandemic first took over the world, Jana (11), from Suwaida province, was not scared. Nevertheless, she was grabbed by fear when the first case was reported in Damascus, especially because her grandparents are old and her father works at a shoe store, forced to get into contact with countless people, which makes them vulnerable to greatest risk from COVID-19.

All that Jana knows about the disease is that its symptoms resemble the flue, causing people to lose their sense of smell. Once the lockdown was enforced, Jana started doing sports, eating healthy food that boost the immune system, and washing her hands constantly to protect herself from the disease. This information, she got from TV, for she always joined her father as he watched the news.

“When the first case was reported, I was so scared for my father. When he stayed with us at home, since all the stores were closed, I was not as afraid as before. Upon reopening, fear struck me again, because my father gets into contact with many people,” Jana said.

The virus deprived Jana of leaving home and seeing her beloved friends. Her heart ached when schools were closed, she said, because she misses her friends, who were all forced to stay home.

“Fear, anxiety, and tension initially controlled my daughter, and the virus became all she talked about,” Jana’s mother said, referring to the negative impact the lockdown had on her daughter’s psychological health. The mother, however, cooperated with the child to smooth things down, helping her to do sports at home and other similar activities.

Summarizing the most critical behavioural and psychological disorders suffered by the girl, the mother pointed out to fear, heightened tension, and anxiety, as well as obsessed mentioning of COVID-19 and an intense interest in the quality of food.

The mother also noticed that Jana’s headaches went worse because she had excessive brain electrical charges, while she stayed up at night, turned more irritable and regularly bored.

“I believe that being afraid and the quarantine were the principal reasons that her headache seizures worsened,” the mother added, concluding that anxiety and tension badly affect Jana’s illness.

29,296 children died at the hands of main actors in Syria between March 2011 and last June.

– Syrian Network for Human Rights

Assessing the situation, psychiatrist Muhammad Abu Hilal said that the quarantine increased “socially unacceptable behaviours” among children to varying degrees, such as bullying those who cough, aggression, shouting, hyperactivity, sabotaging furniture, no to mention relentless complaining.

“The reason is that there are not enough child-friendly spaces in Syria. Then, there was the outbreak which complicated the situation for the children. Consequently, they became less active and further isolated from their peers at home,” he said.

The pandemic also gave rise to tension and fear of the disease, the signs of which were shown buy children, as they turned “obsessive” and confused about the appropriate manner of behaving, while many became less trusting of others.

“In general, the children’s language changed from one concerned with playing and studying, to one dominated by virus-related terms, mask and quarantine, which resulted in a new behavioural pattern among them,” the psychiatrist added.

The new pattern, the psychiatrist said, is represented by isolation and lack of social contact, the child’s loss of opportunities to learn from peers and play with them, hyperactivity, violence towards others at times, unjustified crying, mood swings, refusal to obey parents and negative feelings towards them, in addition to irregular sleep that corresponds to changing daily habits and spending long hours on cellophanes and video games.

Upward trajectory

This fear syncs to the mounting coronavirus cases that are recording an unprecedented upward trajectory across the country.

On 10 March 2020, the Syrian Ministry of Health announced the first COVID-19 positive case, confirmed as coming from abroad. The infection then started spreading, and cases ascended on the upward trajectory of the disease, both in regime-held areas and others out of its control.

Abu Firas, a Damascus-based father, has four children, the eldest is 13 and the youngest is only five months old, who turned more demanding amidst the outbreak. The more the pandemic lingered, the more the man and his wife were unable to keep up with the social and psychological condition of their children.

Umm Firas is a retired nurse; she left her job five years ago. Her husband, however, works in the healthcare industry.

The family’s life was organized, but it somehow drifted towards disorder as children stopped going to school, lacked any sense of obligation or definite activities to keep them busy.

“My children used to wake up at eight, go to school, return to do their homework, and then play with their friends. They slept at eight, having their play, computer and TV time all scheduled. Today, because these duties are absent, their life is no longer organized,” Umm Firas said.

“We tried to fill the spare time with at-home activities. Nevertheless, the Coronavirus measures have been going on for months, not a week or two. Therefore, following upon their day to day activities turned somehow tedious,” the husband added.

The eldest son, Firas, was crazy about football, and he waited impatiently for Friday to go with his friends to the stadium, taking the by way of the Sharia School where he studied before the outbreak. He almost had no spare time.

The parents attempt to provide their children with a breather. They visit their grandfather every Friday at his house in Damascus countryside. There, the place is less jammed, and the children get a safe opportunity to come into contact with people and meet relatives.

Sarah (11) is Firas’ younger sister. She was all about paper crafts, spending an hour or two everyday creating things. The girl, however, says that the hobby bored her during the quarantine, and it no longer helped her pass the time.

The family came across a volunteer teacher, who posted video lessons on Telegram, while other family members overcome the long unfilled hours by watching historical drama. “I reached the stage where I stopped keeping a track of their daily schedule. At one point, I even grew irritable. I returned home from work needing to rest and fearing that I could pass them the virus, for I get into contact with dialysis patients, while my children had a lot of energy, being at home,” Abu Firas said.

As a result, the children quarrelled increasingly, jabbed at each other and turned more irritable. The family is also concerned over the worst case scenario — a further spread of the virus with the daily rise in positive cases in Syria. Despite the increase, the family began to allow children to go outside, while maintaining tight preventive measures, for keeping them at home all the time has become impossible.

Age-based response

Psychologist Taher Laila, head of the psychosocial and social support team at the Syrian American Medical Society (SAMS), said that: “Children differ according to their age groups.”

“Those under the age of six can understand the anxiety surrounding them, but it is difficult for them to comprehend quarantine, the virus and its consequences,” he added, stressing that the parents’ duty, in this context, is to advise them and find simple ways to communicate ideas to them, explain the importance of social distancing, and the reason for staying home.

He pointed out that, at this age, children tend to develop feelings of guilt when they are not allowed out to play or are not hugged by their father when he is home from work. Children, thus, blame themselves, which necessitates that they get all these ideas explained.

Furthermore, he stressed the need to block rumours and inform children only of facts available on the Internet and social networking sites, to help them resist stress, particularly with the criticism aimed at governments that announce the daily number of cases, a thing that boosts anxiety and mental strain.

Dealing with children amidst the outbreak, Lila stated, demands that parents maintain low levels of concern, because children imitate their parents’ personalities, becoming stressed, as well. Parents, therefore, must keep their composure and address the pandemic with scientific preventative measures.

Moreover, Lila explained that the story was made rather complicated for children, because they need free and safe spaces to move around. With numerous families living in camps, while others are impoverished, capable of affording the costs of small houses only, due to displacement in Syria, in addition to lacking electricity, Internet and recreational activities, the space dedicated for children was subjected to restrictions with excessive energy that needs to be let out.

The unchanneled excessive energy, the psychologist added, causes children to be sad, depressed and isolated, and renders them anxious, becoming not only demanding, but also vulnerable to other symptoms such as intense anger, and stubbornness at times. This pressure, in fact, affects children’s social skills, through which they manage to integrate into society and communicate with their surroundings. These effects might, in turn, influence their social intelligence, making them shy, lacking in spirit and withdrawn.

In case of primary-school-age children, Lila stated that prolonged confinement to home might affect their linguistic skills.

The post Surrounded by Horror: COVID-19 Increasing Syrian Children’s already Multiple Losses appeared first on SIRAJ.

Before one year and a half, a local Turkish phone number called to the Syrian refugee, Jihad Rahal, the content of the calling was ambiguous for him, because he doesn’t know the Turkish language.

At the next day the same number called him again, with a ” weak” Arabic language, the caller told Jihad that he is an employer of the Immigration Department, and asked him to provide his documents for obtaining the Turkish nationality, at the first the young Syrian thought that it is just a”joke” from one of his friends .

At the next day Jihad went to the Immigration Department in Gaziantep city (southern of Turkey) to check it out, he asked employees who talking the Arabic language about the caller’s number and the content of demand , they asserted to him that the call is real and the phone number really belongs to the Immigration Department .

Jihad is a 28 years old youth, from Idlib countryside, holding a Syrian secondary school’s certificate, residing in Aleslahia camp, he says to the person who prepares the investigation, ” in spite of that I will lose the aid & housing at the camp, but surely I prefer obtaining the Turkish nationality to be able working legally or travel to another country for work, after I became a semi-prisoner here because I can’t move among Turkish cities, and if I left turkey I can’t return back “.

Jihad not the only one who nominates to obtain the Turkish nationality, the person who prepared this investigation has documented dozens of cases inside and outside the camp that really obtained the nationality and a lot of them do not have a university certificates, and this contradicts with the Turkish official narrative that the nationalization is targeting the Competencies Syrians only.

This reality makes the resident Syrian at Turkish lands in front of many questions, why they are nationalized? What the aim of that in the near and long term? How many persons of the Syrians were nationalized? And where is concentrated their biggest percentage? We are trying in this investigation answering of these questions and other during making interviews with the experts, politician and Syrians have obtained the Turkish nationality. “And others still waiting for their roles amid the absence of a clear & followed methodology, to choose the nominees, for the Turkish nationality from the resident Syrians in the Turkish lands”, as saying the experts and the persons who follow-up the matter.

For five months, the investigation detected providing documents of 360 Syrian for obtaining the Turkish nationality at Hatay state alone. And each of the Syrian governorates: Aleppo & Idlib which is taking the highest rates of nationalization, and the Turkish Gaziantep & Hatay governorates are occupied the first ranks among the Turkish cities which the Syrians were nationalized inside it, due to the intensive presence for Syrians south of the country.

The lawyer: Gazwan krunful, of the Free Syrian lawyers gathering, “None precisely knows the criteria, which is followed by the Turkish government for nationalization the Syrians? And who are the nominees for that? And there are doctors and academic persons in turkey since five years and most of them are waiting for nationalization but in vain, In spite of that the Turkish government said two years ago, that Syrian nationalization is targeted the competences “.

– Comparison between granting the Turkish nationality for Syrians & foreigners:

Exceptional nationality conditions for Syrians:

– A directly call from the Immigration Department to the nominee for nationalization (there aren’t any criteria).

– Recommendation of an official governmental party, or close to the government (political Syrian mostly).

The Turkish nationality conditions for foreigners:

– Real estate investment, in a value of $ 250 thousand dollars.

-Bank deposit, in a value of $ 500 thousand dollars.

– Work/labor residence for 5 years without exceeding the period in abroad of 6 months, with paying taxes during all of this period and learn the Turkish language fluently.

– Marriage of a Turkish girl, and the continuation and stability of marriage for 3 years at least.

– Ancestries and proving that by documents and Turkish courts.

– The persons who are providing great services, for Turkish state on the economic or industrial or scientific or cultural or arts or sports level.

A foothold

The absence of precise numbers creates a lot of questions about the numbers of nationalized Syrians refugees, by the Turkish opposition and the Syrian street itself, in the same time experts & analysts consider that the nationalization has a linked goal in creating influence to Turkey inside Syria in the future.

“There is an idea on the table that the goal of nationalizing Syrian is doing on the basis to create a foothold at Aleppo & Idlib regions, but I assert that the nationalizing operation is including the Syrians from the different Syrian governorates, not on regional basis, but maybe there is a far goal for the Turkish state, to create a human element to be a supporter of it at the regions close to the border (Turkish) “as referred by Krunful.

To verify the speech of experts & the persons who follow-up the Syrian nationalization case, the person who prepared this investigation has made an opinion poll at a random sample of Syrians, about the percentage of who obtained the Turkish nationality at the Syrian density’s cities in Turkey.

By asking the following question to measure levels of obtaining the nationality from Syrians, did you obtain the Turkish nationality or you submitted your documents to take it?

The results which were taken of fifty Syrians in Istanbul, Gaziantep, and Hatay, shown that 6 of 10 persons interacted with the opinion poll, obtained the nationality or submitted their documents in Istanbul. While this percentage increased in Gaziantep to 2 of 10 and 3 of 10 in Hatay state.

In another opinion poll included 90 Syrians were nationalized or submitted their documents recently at the same three cities, and the opinion poll’s question was, which is the Syrian city you are from?

The high percentage of nationalized people was from Aleppo and its countryside: 25.5%, Idlib: 23.3%, Damascus & Damascus countryside: 23.3%, latakia: 12.2%.

And in the absence of reliable numbers & accurate governmental statics, the nationalization operation still happened continuously in most of the Turkish states after its stopping for several months in some states.

In Gaziantep at south , the local Turkish television “Mega ” published a news on the last 30 November , about that the Immigration Department  at the city resumed the nationalization operation for Syrians irrespective of the qualifications or conditions, after its stopping before months for unknown reasons.

Abed Alrefai, from Damascus he is residing in Istanbul, on October 2018 he submitted a request for obtaining the nationality after a text message which was sent to the company accountant’s cell phone, which he is working in it, that he must go to the Immigration Department in Istanbul, and when we asked him about his opinion of why is Turkey nationalizes the Syrians?

“He has a labor residency since two years ago, and giving him the nationality based on that, and his opinion that the nationality to facilitate his work and to dispose of foreigners residency procedures”, As Alrefai said.

” The nationalized Syrians form a strategic depth for Turkey currently , after solving the conflict in Syria & returning back the Syrian refugees of who obtained the Turkish nationality” , as saying Mustafa Hamed Uglu , the head of the Syrian community in Istanbul .

As for Ayham Numaan (alias name), from Aleppo city, who was waiting his wife’s father to obtain the Turkish nationality to enable him obtains it by his wife, he doesn’t care about the reason of granting him the nationality, ” All what I want to dispose of difficulties of obtaining a Syrian passport’s and to dispose of the residency transactions & brokers and to obtain the right of owning house in Turkey”, as he is saying.

Naturally ,obtaining the Turkish nationality is considers a facilitation factor for residence in Turkey , so no needs to renew the Turkish residency and the Syrian passport, where the Syrian consulate in Istanbul is granting the Syrian citizens a passport valid for two years with a cost of $800 U.S, in addition, $ 350 a cost of the appointment & consulate fees, in another hand, the Turkish passport for 10 years costs $140 , and the ability to travel to 69 countries around the world with entrance visa .

-Distributing the nationalized persons, originally according to their Syrian cities as follows:

1.1 % Deir Azzor     1.1% Hama     2.2% Raqqa         4.4% Hasaka

6.6% Homs   25.5 Aleppo & Aleppo countryside        23.3 Idlib

23.3 % Damascus & Damascus countryside               12.2 latakia

0 % Tartous , Daraa & Swidaa

This opinion poll, which based on a sample of 90 Syrians have obtained the Turkish nationality recently in Istanbul, Hatay & Gaziantep.

The nationality is for scientific competencies!

In Turkish Hatay state (south), the investigation preparer documented nationalization & submitting documents of 360 Syrians, from end of April till end of November 2018, during monitoring comments of the nationalized persons , who submitted their documents through a group by (Whatsapp) application , regarding to the nationalized persons from Hatay or who were nominated for it.

“Here didn’t refuse any submitted request for obtaining the nationality” saying one of the Immigration Department’s employee.

Mahmoud Ghazal , residing at Hatay state which near to the Syrian border, from Latakia & Idlib side, he obtained the Turkish nationality in spite of that he did not has any Scientific & scholastic qualification or any private work and he is from Idlib , and currently he owns a small restaurant in “Rihania” city , and he is one of the middle-income persons .

“I am very happy by obtaining the Turkish nationality, and I don’t care about my Syrian passport, currently I am working as a Turkish, I can travel and I have secured the medical care for my children & their future, and the most important thing that I can buy a house, and I don’t intend to return back to Syria never “.

Ezz Eddin Alali, a pediatric doctor, and he have a work residency in Istanbul since two years, and no one called to him, for submitting to get the nationality, he is waiting that “eagerly” as he is saying.

Getting, “a Syrian passport & Turkish labor residency became very exhausted & cost matter”.

“We are Syrian’s competencies and the government said that it will nationalize the competencies, so where it is? Alali is asking.

This reality is contrary to the assurances of Turkish government officials in more than one occasion & declarations which reported by media, one of it a declaration of the last Turkish Prime Minister Yilderm – currently the president of the Perlman, that “granting the Turkish nationality will be only for competencies’ persons from Syrians “.

Mahmoud Alhalabi is another Syrian, he got the Turkish nationality two years ago, and he added an amendment on his family name (nickname), by adding (Uglu) word,

And He is of Turkmen descents, he submitted his documents for nationality, through known persons by him in the Directorate of Awqaf / Endowment, which has a paved way to nominates names of certain persons for nationality, his father a religion man and has relations with Directorate of Awqaf and he is speaking Turkish fluently.

As too Safi Alrefai from Damascus, holding a bachelor in Arabic language, before 5 months his refuge request to Canada was accepted, and when he decided to travel at the determined appointment they did not allow him, because his name included inside the nominees lists for nationality.

Thus he had to postpone his travel 15 days and he paid financial amounts until he becomes able through brokers, the governor’s known persons and Directorate of Immigration in Istanbul to remove his name from those lists to allow him to travel.

The Turkish states which the Syrians percentages are exceeding of 15 % of the total population:

Gaziantep: 20%           Orfa: 23%          Hatay: 28%        Kles: 91%

The criteria of nationalization are” absent”:

There are no fixed answers at the Immigration Department’s officials, after going the person who prepared this investigation to the central Immigration Department in Ankara, for asking about the required criteria for Syrians to get the nationality, about the receiving requests and giving appointments, “No fixed criteria, wait for call or a message in case you were nominated “. As the official said.

The situation doesn’t different in Istanbul, through asking the Civil Status Affairs’ director by the person who prepared the investigation at the city about the number of the nationalized Syrians, he refused to declare about any official numbers.

Before five years ago from now, and before the parliament & presidency elections, “30 thousands Syrians will vote at the parliament & presidency elections, after they have gotten the Turkish nationality” as said Binali Yildirm in a press statement reported by “Reuters”, and in consideration that the average of the Syrian family in turkey is 4 persons, so the number indicates to about 120 thousands nationalized person, and those rates were doubted by the Turkish opposition.

Through this reality, “Up to date, the numbers of nationalized Syrians do not exceed 50 thousand, and in consideration that everyone has a family of 3 persons, so we are in front of 200 thousand nationalized Syrians” as asserted by the lawyer Gazwan krunful.

“We do not know the hidden & the real number but certainly more & more than that” As Unal Chivek Oz, the deputy head of the opposed Republican People’s Party to the government.

Economic interdependence enhances the Turkish influence:

According to the Turkish Ministry of Interior, “Kels” the southern border city which considers the most Syrians presence inside it, and their percentage reaches 91% of the state’s population, and it is itself the state which inside it, the Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan is unleashed the issue of granting the Syrians competencies & investors the Turkish nationality exceptionally, in July 2016.

According to the Directorate of Trade & Customs data in southern Anatolia, the amount of Turkey exports to both of “Dire Alfurat” and “Ghusin Alzaytun” areas are $ 560 million dollars, and these numbers indicate strongly indicating the economic interdependence between it and the nearby Turkish cities.

And that accompanied with giving the permission of the Turkish government to the Turkish cars, investors & Turkish traders for going to Dire Alfurat’s areas across Jarablus crossing and returning back when they want, according to the local people asserts, to the investigation’s preparer.

The nationality for political purposes!

In spite of the Turkish government’s asserts that it will not grant the nationality to all Syrians which their numbers reached 3.5 million Syrian, so the Turkish opposition is accusing of the government in demographic changing in order to win the voters votes in the future.

So Camille Okaye Sender , the general secretary for the Republican People Party and he is one of the most prominent Turkish opposition parties, he  considers in a press statement to a group of journalists during November of 2018 that nationalize the Syrians is “a cover to achieve political goals”.

And “Yani Akeet” the Turkish journal which reported on the previous deputy of the opposition Republican people party Omot Oran that: ” the Syrians during 10 years will form about 10 percent of the population and that will leave a social, cultural and political effect on Turkey “.

“The nationalization of Syrians is concentrated at the south of Turkey due to the high intensive population for Syrians at sates of Hatay –Mersin –Orfa –Gaziantep – Kahraman, and Aramch” as saying the lawyer Krunful.

The reality is saying that the number of Syrian in Istanbul is exceeding on the half million, and the nationalized persons’ percentage not high as the results of the questionnaire showed, which has made by the investigation’s preparer.

And that imposes many new questions about the reason for increasing the nationalization rates at the south Turkish cities.

“The intensive nationalization hypothesis at the south Turkish areas, not related in elections issues or increasing votes of Justice and Development Party at these areas”, as saying the lawyer Krunful.

And he negates that the goal of nationalization in these areas for housing the nationalized persons in these areas to make a demographic changing, the authority, as he said “don’t have the right to force the residence at a certain area on the citizen”.

And Ibrahim Egman from “Denise” Center for polls, the same opinion, he thinks that “The authority cannot force a certain residence at certain cities on the citizens, but any Turkish citizen doesn’t have the right in any elections happening in Turkey, to elect outside of his department (his domicile registration place), unless he transferred it to his new city, and this is not a difficult step and it can be applied in any time “.

3.5 Million Syrians in Turkey (Ministry of Turkish Interior)

According to these statistics, the Syrians in Turkey form 4.2% of the total population for the country which estimated in 83 million people according to the Turkish statistics institute (Turkestat).

The position of the Turkish opposition and the street

There are different opinions in the Turkish street between rejectionists and pro-nationalization for Syrians, for many for many considerations linked to Syrians’ competition in the labor market, and the acquisition of governmental financial aids.

“Today there are more than 300 thousand Syrians have submitted their requests and we refuse to nationalize all these numbers and we do not accept that, because the nationalization process is happening not according to clear foundations” as Tashfik Oz , the deputy head of The People Party is saying to the investigation’s preparer.

Miral Uwkushnar , the leader of “Aljayid “party which dissident of the nationalist      movement , which established at the end of 2017 , she said ” The nationalization of Syrians should be stopped and agree with Syrian government “.

Yagmur Neil Gul, a Turkish citizen is clarifying that:” we don’t find work opportunities to give the nationality to Syrians”, and Zaki Banar, a Turkish citizen sees that “If they will work and pay the taxes I don’t have any problem in their obtaining the nationality”.

And this refusal for the Syrians nationalization process can be understood from convictions of the Turkish street and the opposition that the Syrians are causing unemployment to the Turks, in exchange for huge financial assistance from the Turkish government for them, and this is the conclusion of the general opinion polls about the Turks’ sight to the Syrians refugees.

This has been made by the Turkish police academy on 24 November 2018, and which its results were published by the Turkish channel “TRT HABER”.

Is this a granting nationality or for making them as Turks?

The Syrians nationalization’s issue and its development Coincides with the closure of the Syrian schools which are teaching by Arabic language, and forcing the Syrians students to enter the Turkish schools or going to the highly expensive private schools, which most of Syrians cannot bear its cost.

So the risks of the blending & nationalization process are become the last nail  in belonging the majority of the newborn babies & children to their country, even if number of them are nationalized or from the new “Turks”.

While the process of Syrians’ nationalization in turkey is going on, and blending the Syrians students in the Turkish schools and follow-up their scientific achievement in the Turkish language, and closing horizon of the near returning to Syria, because of risks losing the life, the deterioration of the local economy and establishing of economical projects in Turkey.

the Process of Making the next generation” as Turks /Turkification”, with vigorous attempts to make the current generation from Turkey’s Syrians as Turks, seems to be going on, in its way to becoming in future as Syria’s Turks.

This investigative story was completed by Syrian Investigative Reporting for Accountability Journalism – (SIRAJ). Published on DARAJ

The post What backgrounds of granting nationality to tens thousands of Syrian in Turkey? appeared first on SIRAJ.

Suha al-Ali -Idlib 

To divorce her husband in absentia or to waive her house, were the only two solutions for a Syrian lady to get out of the labyrinth she was put in.

Mariam A., 39, used to live in Ariha city, located in Idlib province, along with her husband who is a conscript in the Syrian regular forces, the thing that forced him later to flee to Damascus after Jaish al-Fatah managed to control Ariha in 2015, as he was a military adversary.

After Jaysh al-Fateh’s takeover, Ariha witnessed violent aerial bombardment, which produced a large number of displaced people including a lady who fled to Kafr Nabl, an adjacent town. After the bombardment stopped, she returned back along with her children to her two-room house, but she was shocked to see a family of al-Nusra Front fighter residing there. They told her that the house was confiscated because her husband was one of the Syrian regime’s Shabbiha.

It was almost three years since the incident, during which Jaish al-Fatah was dissolved, as al-Nusra Front separated from it, and changed its name to Jabhat Fateh al-Sham and then to Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham(HTS) after its separation from al-Qaeda.

However, what has not changed is that Mariam lost both her house and husband.

The maze of getting the house back

Mariam was not the only one whose house was confiscated; as the writer of this report counted the confiscation of 46 houses, throughout Idlib province, between 2013 and 2018 by HTS (formerly al-Nusra Front) and Jaish al-Fatah before it. She got this information through interviews, with persons whose houses were confiscated, and field visits, with a direct survey in several towns and villages of Idlib.

This six-month investigative report showed that HTS used two pretexts to seize people’s houses, where it either accused the person of being “Shabih” or an “apostate” without legal warrant. It was enough for the members of the Sharia Court or the judiciary, affiliated to HTS to write, “seized” or “at the disposal of the Sharia Court” on any house to confiscate it. From here, the legal owner of the house starts his long journey in courts to get it back. However, most of the civilians interviewed, failed in getting back their houses due to the lack of impartiality in HTS courts, since the entity that seizes the house is the same that took office, besides the lack of competence of HTS’ court judges, according to homeowners and eyewitnesses from the same area.

This violates Rule 50 of “Customary International Humanitarian Law” which stated; “the destruction or seizure of the property of an adversary is prohibited, unless required by imperative military necessity.”

This rule applies to non-international armed conflicts, such as the Syrian conflict, and applies also to the members of non-state armed groups, like HTS, according to a written response obtained by the preparer of this investigation from STJ, an independent human rights organization works to document human rights violations, stating that the seizure of houses and other properties of Idlib residents by HTS is a breach of its obligations as a party to the conflict and a clear violation of the International Humanitarian Law (IHL).

After confiscating her house, Mariam never gave up. She started asking Jaish al-Fatah Sharia Courts for assistance to get back her house, which is the only shelter for her and her children.

She headed to the court and told them that she had a legal contract of sale between her and her husband, which proves her ownership to half of the house, but judges there refused to give her back the right to dispose of the house.

However, because of her insistence on getting back her house, the judges suggested that the problem could be resolved by getting divorced in absentia in exchange for giving her back the right to dispose of the house. She refused to do so at first, but then she changed her mind because of two reasons; first, she wanted to get back her only shelter, and the second losing hope to reunite with her husband who was in Damascus, as she told the presenter of this investigation.

By the end of 2015, months after the confiscation of Mariam’s house, she stood at Jaish al-Fatah court and divorced her husband in absentia by a document signed by the judge, who in turn, wrote an eviction order to the new residents of the house immediately.

It was just the shock when the “al-Nusra Front” fighter’s family, settled in the house, never cared for the judge’s note and refused to leave the house. Nonetheless, no action was taken by the court to force them out. Consequently, Mariam had lost her husband in the first place and her only shelter in the second.

At the last interview with the presenter of this investigation, Mariam said, “she will never ever return to this area because she was disappointed there” and then Mariam disappeared, and no one knew where she went.

At the Disposal of the Court

Abdulkarim Barbour, who hails from Saraqib city in Idlib countryside, was displaced early in 2013, towards a safe village west of Aleppo as a result of the escalation of the shelling and he still doesn’t dare to return home.

Almost three months after displacement, specifically in April 2013, he accidently saw a photo published on the social media of his own house written on one of its walls “at the disposal of the court”.

Barbour added that he learnt from friends living in the neighborhood that “al-Nusra Front” rents his house to its Syrian and immigrant fighters in rotation.

Barbour dare not sue them out of fear of reprisals, the same fear that had already prevented him from returning home anyway. Therefore, he left his house to its fate.

 Accusation of apostasy

7 out of the 46 seized houses, which were documented by the investigation writer, were confiscated by charging their owners with “apostasy”.
Apostasy is the conscious abandonment of Islam by a Muslim in word, through deed, doubt or loss of faith” according to the Islamic scientific references.

Ali Amin as-Suwayed, 49, from Kafr Nabl but living in Kuwait for more than 20 years, was one of those Syrians whose houses were confiscated after being accused of apostasy.

As-Suwayed is the writer of the famous signs held by protesters in Kafr Nabl town. On April 28, 2015, he published an article criticizing Abu Mohammad al-Julani, the commander of HTS, which in response accused him of apostasy and confiscated his both houses in Kafr Nabl; knowing that his elderly parents lived in one of these houses and his nephew lived in the other.

As-Suwayed said: “al-Nusra Front accused me of apostasy and of distributing Takfiri leaflets”.
As-Suwayed rejected these charges and said that he is proud of being Muslim. Moreover, he faced “allegations of apostasy” with a massive media campaign that involved several activists from Idlib who refused the charge that was never based on clear evidence. This prompted al-Nusra Front to renounce its decision to confiscate as-Suwayed’s houses to avoid public outrage.

However, as-Suwayed added that after al-Nusra Front gave him back the right to dispose of his houses, it arrested his nephew, Bashar as-Suwayed, 23, who was living in one of the two confiscated houses. He has been held for more than 10 months, on a charge of communicating with his uncle, Ali, in order to put pressure on the latter.

The Free Idlib Army opposition faction currently controls Kafr Nabl town. However, HTS still has extensive influence over the town and throughout Idlib province.

Jihadists have the right to seize Shabiha’s houses

The house of Um Muhammad and her family was saved from being seized by HTS at the very last moments, after the latter sent her an eviction notice.

Where on Wednesday, 18 December 2017, a person knocked the door of Um Muhammad’s house located in Ma`arat al-Nu`man city, south of Idlib, and told her that they had to evacuate the house and to go to the courthouse the following day to meet the judge; the man turned to be from HTS courthouse.

“When the judge, who was a sheikh, came in, he started asking about my children and their whereabouts; I replied that they were in Hama city, and that one of them is a civil servant at the central inspection, whereas the other is a taxi driver.” Um Muhammad said.

The woman was shocked when the judge replied that the court had decided to confiscate her house, arguing that her son was working for the Syrian regime, and that her house had to be evacuated within a month as maximum. Despite all her attempts to persuade him that she has no other place to shelter in, and that her other three children had been killed during previous bombardment on the area, the judge did not alter his decision.

“When I asked the judge why he was taking such decision, he answered, “Jihadists have the right to seize shabiha’s houses”

Prior to the expiry of the time limit for the eviction, Um Muhammad contacted a person close to HTS agents to help her asking them to reverse their decision. Indeed, the person, whom Um Muhammad did not disclose his identity, spoke with the Sharia judge at the courthouse to disregard, even temporarily, the confiscation of her house.

While mediation was being applied, the two opposition movements; Nour al-Din al-Zenki and Ahrar al-Sham merged in the name of “Syrian Liberation Front” with the aim to fight HTS.  Fierce battles erupted in Ma`arat al-Nu`man, and led to withdrawal of HTS from the city, in early February. So, Um Muhammad’s house was saved from being confiscated, but in mid-April, HTS re-took the area, which raised again Um Muhammad’s fears of losing her house.

Um Muhammad was not the only person whose house was about to be confiscated by HTS in Ma`arat al-Nu`man. Last June 12, Um Rami, an alias, received a telegram stated that she had to go to HTS courthouse, and when she went there, she was told to evacuate the house she was living in, because it is registered to her son, who is a conscript in the Syrian regular forces.

The house was a two-storey building; the woman used to live downstairs with her children, and rent the upstairs to earn a living. The judge told her to evacuate the downstairs, and to tell the renter to pay the monthly rent to HTS instead.

Um Rami added that she tried to claim that the house was registered to her but she did not have ownership papers; she also tried to convince them that she was not responsible for her son’s actions, but all her attempts failed.

Later the attempts evolved to verbal altercation with the judge, but ended up with the retreat of HTS from the confiscation order, in exchange for paying HTS the monthly rent of the floor she used to rent, which was SYP 10,000.
Consequently, Um Rami lost her sole source of income, in the absence of any breadwinner.

Lack of the courts’ impartiality

The lawyer Ghazwan Qurunful, head of the “Free Syrian Lawyers Aggregation”, which is a Syrian rights organization in Turkey, described the legal arbitration process, deciding house cases in HTS courts as “a judicial circus tent”.

He said: “It is normal that houses were not retrieved, since the entity that confiscated them is the same that established the court, which all its judges are commissioners of the HTS authority and are woefully incompetent. Hence, it is wrong to form such courts with poor methodology and no rules.”

“Forming such courts is an additional offense, as by creating alternatives of the state courts, the armed factions shall commit an offence of “usurpation the Judiciary”, as the power of the judge mustn’t be exercised by any person”, Qurunful said.

“Legally, what HTS agents did is a pillaging property crime, that deprives a person of his right to dispose his property lawfully”, pointing out that it falls under misdemeanors, that there is no transfer of ownership, but just a temporary seizure.

The Syrian judge, Hussein Hamada, who has previously held several judicial positions in the Syrian government, stated; “the process of seizing a real estate has no legal basis; it is a violation of property rights, and has no legal consequences. Those who pass sentences like these must be held accountable”, he added “the Tashbeeh, must not be linked to seizure of the property because the property is safeguarded by the Syrian Constitution, and the pillage is only allowed for the public benefit in exchange for fair compensation.”

Judges of HTS are sharia men, whose scientific qualifications are identities are unclear, as they known by their titles like, Abu Muhammad, or Abu Hajer, etc.

Those sharia men were trained to be judges by attending a 15 day course entitled “Preparing a Sharia Judge”, according to Ahmad Bakour, the Syrian lawyer who was living in Idlib.

This process of judges’ appointment, contravenes Article 3 common to the four Geneva Conventions, which says “the passing of sentences and the carrying out of executions without previous judgment pronounced by a regularly constituted court affording all the judicial guarantees which are recognized as indispensable by civilized peoples..”

The Minimum guarantees in criminal proceedings are determined by article 14/3 of the International Human Rights Law, which stated that the charged must be informed promptly and in detail in a language which he understands of the nature and cause of the charge against him,  have adequate time and facilities for the preparation of his defence and to communicate with counsel of his own choosing; be tried without undue delay;  be tried in his presence, and defend himself in person or through legal assistance of his own choosing and not to be compelled to testify against himself or to confess guilt.

HTS courts are void since they do not apply the standard guarantees of the International Human Rights Law, according to Syrians for Truth and Justice (STJ).

From a religious point of view, the Sheikh Ayman Muhammad, alias, a preacher and imam of a mosque in Idlib, indicates that “private property must be confiscated by the governor, who considered to be a guardian; not by a faction agent.” He added “if a faction allowed to do so, then other factions will have the same right since they are equal, which may be result in a complete chaos.”

Utilization not Pillage

We presented our facts to the Ministry of Justice in the “Syrian Salvation Government”, being the only civil rights body in Idlib province.

“The Salvation Government was formed in Idlib in November 2017; headed by Mohammed al-Sheikh. It took over civil administrations, which was previously controlled by HTS, days after its formation”

The Minister of Justice of Salvation Government, Dr. Ibrahim Shasho said: “Since the formation of the Salvation Government, there has been no decision to confiscate any house in Idlib.”

He added: “There is no seizure, but those found guilty of “Tashbeeh”, their houses are attached temporarily for the benefit of the displaced persons. We are an “interim judiciary”, deals with pressing cases, not a permanent one so we have the right to take advantage of houses but not to transfer their ownership.”

Dr. Shasho denied the allegations that the houses were be seized without sentence from the court, saying: “The decision of evacuation is made only by a judgment of the Military Judiciary after hearing the testimony of the Shabih’s house’s residents. And if the Shabih was the only breadwinner of his family, the house would not be evicted, the same if the family has no other house. But if it has two houses, then one of them would be evacuated in favor of a displaced family.”

* This investigation was carried out under the supervision of the Syrian Investigative Reporting for Accountability Journalism-SIRAJ, in cooperation with Syrians for Truth and Justice (STJ).
Supervised by: the colleague, Ahmad Haj Hamdo.

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By Ziad Omar and Ahmed Abdallah

Alhayat– Beyond the known suffering of Syrians who are living under fire or migrating through rough seas in rundown boats, another more brutal and dangerous world exists, that of a black market in organ trafficking leading to a worst fate.
This report investigates the involvement of medical doctors in organ trafficking networks targeting Syrian victims. The networks begin in Syria and move across the borders to Lebanon, Egypt, and Turkey.
Others are also involved in the business, starting with fake security officials and ex-convicts and ending with pimps. This investigative report documents hitherto details on unknown cases involving organ traders who were arrested by the Syrian authorities.
In addition, the report reveals how hospitals and doctors continue to practice the business, benefiting a security breakdown since 2011. These gangs resort to a loophole in law number 3/2010 on combating human trafficking, as article three does not punish or incriminate the donor.

Complex networks
Among those revealed by the report are doctors, gunmen, women, a convicted pimp, and a fugitive wanted for “debauchery and organ trafficking”.
Members of these networks work in clinics and hospitals across most Syrian cities and regions. Some of them carry unlicensed guns, while others manage the e-marketing of human organs, as per in the following advert:

“For sale: Kidney of a 27 year-old male who needs the money to travel to Europe. Free of any viruses or genetic diseases. Currently residing in Turkey. For inquiries: send private message.”

Both reporters went undercover once posing as donors (sellers) and once as recipients (buyers). In both cases, they recorded conversations with the person behind the advert, who turned out to be a mediator for an organised network.
The mediator asked about their blood type to match recipients with donors. He also offered his services for other organs if needed, as there are “fresh goods everyday”.
The reporters then continued to track Syrians who sold their organs to networks of doctors and mediators.
Donors sell their organs voluntarily to raise money to travel to Europe, or forcibly, as in the case of Ahmed Abdul Karim, who was buried in his hometown of Morek, north of Hamah, next to other bodies whose organs were stolen during medical treatment. These thefts started since 2013, according to locals in nearby villages, as well as human rights and media reports that documented this growing phenomenon as the Syrian war grew fiercer.
On July 6, 2015, the head of Syria’s Doctors’ Syndicate Abdul Qader Hassan announced the dismissal and discipline of five doctors who were found involved in organ trafficking.
Our reporters followed up on the case of these doctors and through a senior judicial source, managed to obtain a copy of the syndicate’s decision to dismiss them.
The document, number 4/3/2011, was issued by the central disciplinary council of the Syrian Doctors’ syndicate.
“The Syndicate has banned the doctors from practicing medicine permanently, referring them to the relevant judiciary authorities after investigations revealed their involvement in a transnational network that takes pregnant women to Lebanon to give birth, before selling their babies for large sums of money for organ harvesting,” the statement read.
According to the statement, the sale took place in compliance with a doctor called Samir H., whom the recipient and donor had met at a conference earlier.
The court based its decision on an initial confession by one of the doctors, as well as his secretary and driver, following extensive investigations, which also included a testimony by one of the victims.
Other doctors led a 12-member network, from Damascus to Aleppo. Our reporters managed to obtain a copy of their case after they were arrested by the criminal security unit in the period between 2013 and 2015.
The network was described by a security source as the “most active”. One of its members would pose as a security officer in charge of an armed group. Some of them had been arrested once before while others were arrested three times in less than two years.
Ziad W. and Mohammed Ammar K. are wanted for organ trafficking. The latter is also wanted for attempted kidnapping for the purpose of debauchery and organ trafficking, according to the police report.
Both reporters found that Ziad and Mohammed Ammar were the doctors whose names were included in the e-records announced by the doctors’ Syndicates of Syria and Aleppo.
Abdul Qader Hassan confirmed that in July 2013, they were dismissed and deprived of their syndicate rights, including pensions, health insurance, personal protection, and medical licenses.
However, according to Hassan, the syndicate cannot take other measures against them, as they no longer live in regime-controlled areas in Aleppo.
Ahmed Sh., Naji F., Mohammed Ghazi S., Ahmed H., Nisreen F., Ahmed H. H., Ibrahim H., and Khaled A. are wanted on charges of organ trafficking, while Fadia D. has also been accused of mediation.
Omar H. is wanted for running a prostitution network with the purpose of organ trafficking.
Ahmed al-Sayyed, the attorney general in Damascus, told our reporters that Syrian courts had processed more than 20 cases related to organ trafficking in the past four years, once a rarity.
Sayyed believes the total number of organ trafficking instances had exceeded 20,000.

Dr. Hussain Nofal, head of the recently-founded general authority for forensic medicine, estimates the number of Syrian cases of organ trafficking at over 18,000 in the past four years.
By early 2013, he says, organs from 15,600 people (out of 62,000 wounded who received treatment in neighbouring countries) had been harvested.
Dr. Nofal based his numbers on a comprehensive study conducted on those who were killed in war zones and border areas. The study includes pictures, videos, and other documents that should be released by the courts later.
If you think children are not affected by organ theft, then you have not heard the story of Yasmin Shahada, 9.
The doctors tried to steal her kidney in a hospital that her family cannot locate until now. She was only identified after three bullets were removed from her body following and injury during clashes in Latakia’s northern countryside in 2013.
Our reporters met with the girl and her father in the neighbourhood of al-Daatour, near the city of Latakia.
According to the father, he was informed on August 4, 2013 that his daughter was dead, so he requested an official death certificate (number 1367) from authorities in the nearby town of Salanfa. However, 17 days later, a Turkish doctor called him and said the girl was alive after surviving an attempt to harvest her organs.
The father expressed gratitude and they agreed to meet at the Kassab border crossing. As the doctor delivered the girl, he told her father about the details of how members of the organ trafficking network agreed to sell her kidney through the hospital.
The deal was made in the presence of the girl before the Turkish doctor saved her and smuggled her to Syria.
During six months of extensive investigations, Both reporters documented 12 cases of organ trafficking through direct interviews with victims in Syria, Istanbul, and Beirut, including seven cases of voluntary donation for economic reasons, three cases of forced organ harvesting during medical treatment after war injuries, one case of survival from a harvesting attempt, and one case of fraud based on a medical excuse.
All cases have been documented through audio-visual recordings. They include victims who are still alive, as well as family members in Syria and neighbouring countries. Yet, there are no accurate official statistics, even though all Syrian officials interviewed in this report have admitted the presence of organised networks that exploit the Syrians’ poor conditions to sell their organs.
Our reporters, using hidden cameras, posed as escorts of patient in Damascus to document the doctors’ involvement.
At 11 am on July, 7, 2015, Thura Ahmed, 16, is accompanied by her parents to undergo a corneal transplant surgery (Keratoplasty) in her left eye at a Damascus hospital.
The girl and her family seemed at ease with the surgery, as the doctor had reassured them about its success rate, how it will be transplanted and the healing period. He said the new cornea would be officially imported from the US for $1,500.
According to the doctor, the surgery has a 95 percent success rate. He said the cornea will arrive with a certificate detailing the donor’s medical information, including the harvest date and the donor being free of any genetic or microbial diseases.
In addition, the doctor said the entire transplant surgery would be recorded on camera as a legal procedure that takes place in all transplant operations.
Two days later, the cornea arrived from the US. “How could it arrive here so quickly?”
The doctor called and said the cornea had arrived, according to the girl’s father. Within 20 minutes, the surgery took place in a hospital near the clinic, but the girl’s condition kept deteriorating.
We showed Thura’s case file to Dr. Mohamed Raslan, head of the state-owned eye bank, which includes the official records of all doctors who import corneas.
According to Article One/B of the legislative decree number 61/2010, the health minister can allow ophthalmologists to import corneas in exceptional cases for limited periods of time and for the public interest.
We compared Thura’s information with official requests made by doctors to import corneas, but we could not find the name of the doctor who performed Thura’s surgery.
We tried to search for Thura’s name in the patients’ database, but we still could not find any record of her.
This means that the cornea was either smuggled into Syria or came from local sources.
While the report was being published, Thura’s family was in the process of submitting a complaint to the doctors’ Syndicate.
In Egypt, home to nearly 132,000 Syrian refugees, 29-year-old Mohamed Zaher (alias) was subjected to a new kind of experience.
An organised group managed to set him up and buy his kidney for a certain amount of money, exploiting his need and ignorance of the country and its laws.
Originally from Homs, Zaher works in auto-repairs. He currently lives in Istanbul, where he moved recently.
Zaher left Cairo after he sold his kidney for $3,000 to someone whose real name he did not even know. All they had was a 15-minute face-to-face conversation to agree on the terms of the deal, including price, time, and place.
We met with him in a house he shares with other Syrians in Istanbul.
Zaher is consumed by regret. Every time he is reminded of the deal, he remembers the tragedy that is yet to end. He does not wish a similar fate upon anyone.
The young man hesitated before he agreed to speak out. No one knows about it, not even his wife, whom he married using the money he made from selling his kidney.
“This is the biggest crime I have ever committed in my life,” he said, “and I will never forgive myself.”
Zaher had just returned from a medical examination, as he went to see a doctor after feeling pain in his remaining kidney.
When the doctor found out he had sold his kidney, he told him: “You will inevitably die if your remaining kidney fails.”
How did Zaher come to decide to sell his kidney? And why? What are the details of the procedure that took place at a Cairo hospital at midnight?
We discussed the case with the Egyptian health ministry. Assistant health minister Saber Ghonaim said that if the hospital was proven to have allowed the Syrian young man’s surgery, the doctor and medical team who performed the surgery would be prosecuted, and possibly suspended.
Ghonaim also said the young man should file an official complaint. However, this is not possible as he is currently not in Egypt.
In addition, the Syrian donor has refrained from any official measures to avoid unnecessary legal consequences.

Zaher’s story in Egypt is not one of its kind. Dozens of other Syrians abroad resorted to social media to sell their organs in order to make ends meet or fund a journey to Europe.
Adverts found on online markets reflect the size of the tragedy, with some people advertising their organs online to flee the tragic situation in Lebanon.
The idea began on social media pages related to migration and Syrians abroad. It has now become the norm. At least one or two new adverts are posted everyday by Syrians who want to sell their organs. There is even a Facebook page called “kidneys for sale”, where donors and brokers discuss their deals.
We tried contacting Facebook to discuss the legality of these pages, as well as the social network’s policy to report them. They replied saying that the pages did not violate Facebook’s standards, as they do not incite violence or post inappropriate pictures.
Organ sale online has even extended beyond kidneys, to liver, lung lobes and anything that could save the donors from their misery.
In March 2015, an UNRWA report revealed that poverty and destitution amongst Syrians had reached 82.5 percent in 2014, compared to 64.8 percent in 2013.
As a result, according to the report, “conflict-related transnational networks and criminal gangs emerged to engage in human trafficking.”

Online investigation
Our reporters infiltrated these networks, posing as brokers searching for organs. They posted an advert on a closed Facebook group for Syrians in Lebanon, asking for kidneys, without specifying a blood type.
Syrian citizen Ali A. offered his kidney for sale, and asked about the price we were willing to pay.
Reporters: $2,000 for one kidney.
Ali: For a poor person, this is a fortune. All I want is to cover my children’s expenses, at least for a couple of months.
The second offer came from Mohamed (alias), a 29 year-old Syrian living in a refugee camp in Rashaya, Lebanon. He is a father of three, including two disabled children who need medical care.
Reporters: How much would you sell one of your kidneys for?
Moahmed: I do not know much about this. If the price is good, I will go ahead with it. I need to go to Europe to treat my kids.
Reporters: How about $4,000?
Mohamed: Yes, I would leave Lebanon and travel immediately to Europe.
On the other hand, we contacted a Syrian refugee who advertised his kidney for sale. He seemed professional, as he mentioned the blood type (B+) in the advert. However, he asked the reporters about the blood type they were looking for, which meant he had access to several kidneys with various blood types.
Reporters: Do you still want to sell the kidney?
Seller: What blood type are you looking for?
Reporters: You said B+ in the advert.
Seller: How much?
Reporters: I do not know. How about $2,000?
Seller: *laughs* I want $10,000.

While markets for selling Syrians as spare parts host deals that occur both behind the scenes and in public, international organizations remain oblivious. Our reporters contacted more than four international organizations concerned with documenting these breaches to enquire about the phenomenon. The responses were either “we do not have any information on the phenomenon” or a complete refusal to respond to the enquiries.
For example, Human Rights Watch wrote back on Sept. 7, 2015 saying: “Unfortunately we have not looked into this matter. You can write to Amnesty international or look into the following journalistic material”. They were referring to a report published in the Oct. 12, 2013 edition of Der Spiegel highlighting the story of Raed, 19, who fled from battles in Aleppo to Lebanon, where he sold his left kidney for $7000. The surgery took place in a secret clinic in a residential complex through a Lebanon-based active network that acquires the organs through a middle man called Abu Hussein. The latter receives a commission of $700. The organs are later sent to GCC countries.

Afterwards, we wrote to Amnesty International, twice. The first time on Sept. 3, 2015 and again on Sept. 8, 2015 but we never received a response. As for the World Health Organization, the reporters received a response after enquiring about its role in monitoring the trafficking of Syrian people’s organs and ways to limit the activity across borders. The WHO response, received on Oct. 29, 2015, stated: “We do not look into the issue of organ trafficking. It is the responsibility of the Interpol. We only examine how countries can prepare organ donation programs and the systems, which may discourage or eradicate the illegal trafficking of organs”.
Doctors without Borders (MSF) did not respond to the reporters’ correspondence sent on Sept. 6, 2015. Their letter was not the only one MSF or other international humanitarian institutions did not reply to.
Dr. Morhaf al-Mialim, in charge of the Syrian Centre for Political and Strategic Studies, claimed that he had written to numerous international organizations since early 2012. Nonetheless, they did not write back. Mr. Nizar Skief, the head of the Syrian Lawyers Union supported this discourse. He said he wrote to the Arab Lawyers Union twice. In the first time he wanted to alert them to crimes committed by Arabs in Syria and in the second time he wanted to shed light on the implication of Arab smugglers in arranging illegal migrations to Europe. Both correspondences were part of his personal effort to look into the matter of trading in Syrians abroad. Nonetheless, his correspondences received no response for the Arab Lawyers Union, which was established in Cairo in 1944.

Non-Deterrent Punishments
While the Syrian law goes in line with UN conventions on toughening the punishment against human trafficking, the phenomenon has spread during the war. Among the most important agreements signed by Syria is the “United Nations Convention Against Transnational Organized Crime and the Protocols”.
Signed by Syria in 2009, the Convention seeks the manner with which to pursue the perpetrators of transnational crimes regardless of the political circumstances. The convention also stipulates the responsibility of the state in combating these crimes. However, Syria has reservations concerning paragraph 2, of article 35 of the convention pertaining to transferring these case to the International Court of Justice

Moreover, the Syrian laws were developed along similar lines. Legislative decree no 3 issued in 2010 deals with human trafficking. It increased the punishment in cases of international crimes or if they are committed against women or children. In the aforementioned cases, article 8 of civic degradation is applied. The later stipulates “whenever there is a reason to increase the punishment, it is increased from the third to the half”. As such, a sentence of 15 years would become 20-22 years and a half, and so on.
The head of the Syrian Lawyers’ Union said: “It is true that the law is a deterrent yet the crime continues”. He added that the “chaos ensuing from the Syrian crisis strengthened organized crime gangs at the expense of parties, who are responsible for pursuing them. Consequently, the phenomenon is likely to expand even further and affect neighbouring countries unless there is an international effort to monitor these crimes and combat them”. The head of the Doctors’ Union agreed with that view. He emphasized that the only way out is through international cooperation to monitor the phenomenon to pursue and capture these networks through international police.

In one of its latest reports on Syria by the United Nations entitled “Squandering Humanity” the issue of trafficking Syrians was highlighted. It spoke about people who are murdered in their country, drown in the sea as they attempt to run for their lives, or who die in hospitals in the pursuit of healing. Those who manage to survive all of that offer themselves and their organs for sale perchance their children can survive.
Editor’s Notes:
The following researchers contributed to this investigation: Hussam al-Agha, Qassem Mohamed, and Mohamed al-Qazzaz.
• This investigation was completed with support of Arab Reporters for Investigative Journalism(ARIJ) www.arij.net and coached by Hammoud al-Mahmoud

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