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“THE FIGHTING IS extremely brutal.” – Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs Valerie Amos, United Nations.
Two-and-a-half years after violence erupted in Syria, hundreds of thousands of families have fled the conflict and have set up temporary existences in refugee camps in neighbouring countries.
A growing humanitarian crisis has led to pleas from relief agencies for ceasefires and access to the worst-affected areas.
This week, it emerged that the war-torn nation is now suffering from a polio outbreak.
The UN World Health Organization (WHO) said it received reports on 17 October of a cluster of acute flaccid paralysis (AFP) cases, used to describe a sudden onset of the disease. Syria is already considered at high-risk for this and other vaccine-preventable diseases, but it has not experienced a case of polio since 1999.
Since March 2011, more than two million people have left Syria for Turkey, the Lebanon, Jordan and other nearby countries. A further 4.5 million Syrians are displaced within their home country.
However, they are the luckier ones. More than 100,000 people have been killed in the conflict.
Press Association photographer Danny Lawson was in the Lebanon this week, meeting refugees trying to recover and piece together a life away from home.
Hanady Rakhan (left) is the mother of three-year-old Limar (centre) who was deafened in a bomb blast. They sit with her sister Tasnim in their new home in the Badawi refugee camp in Lebanon.
Limar stands in the doorway.
Hanady poses for the camera.
Syrian refugee Zeinab Gharibt, 24, holds her son Omar Gharibt (centre) in the outskirts of Tripoli in Lebanon. The family fled their home in Syria when its house was destroyed and Zeinab’s brother-in-law was killed during the fighting.
A general view of the Badawi refugee camp in the Lebanon.
Three-year-old Limar, who was deafened in a bomb blast, stands in her home in the Badawi refugee camp in Lebanon.
A child plays with a toy gun in the Badawi Camp refugee in Lebanon.
Twenty-four year-old Syrian refugee Zeinab Gharibt.
21-month-old Syrian refugee Omar Gharibt, cries as he stands in the outskirts of Tripoli in Lebanon.
A general view of posters in the Badawi refugee camp in Lebanon.
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I believe it is time for people in the media who hear responsibility for propagating the lies and propaganda re Syria over these past few years call for compensation for the Syrian people and government.
Who would pay?
Well, for starters the main perpetrators and those responsible for the ghastly flight of Syrian civilians. That would be Turkey, Saudi Arabia, UAE, the US, UK and France. It is abundantly evident at this stage that these countries and their armed forces/intelligence services were operating in Syria from the outset and before in order to implement regime change. Journalist cannot seriously argue that is otherwise unless, as many have been proven to be, in the pay of state intelligence services.
We need justice for the Syrian people at this stage. The mainly foreign Islamic ‘jihadists’ have lost the war. Syria staved off a proxy invasion.
If the rebels lost the war, how can the Syrian regime still not clear Damascus of rebel strongholds?
Seoirse, you forgot to mention Hizbollah and the Iranians.
But don’t let truth get in the way.
Seoirse the arse licking supporter of the Assad regime.
Actually – while I don’t necessarily agree with “saoirse”, – if Assad wins there will be bloodletting followed by a kind of stability.
If the “rebels” win there will be bloodshed followed by bloodshed followed by…….
Libya mark 2.
So the Journal deletes my comment for saying that those complaining about Direct Provision should have a look at the conditions of these refugees? How is that in breach of comments policy? Ridiculous!
This “war” in Syria has been instigated and played out under the direction and management of the usual western suspects namely the USA, France Italy and Britain. These terrorist states have innocent blood on their hands and their involvement in the arming and directing of terrorism against a sovereign Syrian state will surely come back to bite them. And I pray it will happen soonest.
And the Russians, who supply a nation which is willing to use chemical weapons to root out forces from Damascus, are any better? Or the mercenaries from Hezbollah and Iran who are fighting for the regime?
Who used chemicals weapons Jason?
The UN was quite clear in its assessment of the situation Golden. The regime was the most likely culprit and the evidence makes a clear statement of that.
Re Jason.
Who is the regime? Do you mean the Syrian government?
The Syrian government did not carry out the Chemical Attack Jason. Look at the videos. Why are the same children appearing in different videos in different positions and locations. Your blinded.
Blinded? That’s a hilarious thing to accuse me of considering the fact that you ignore the sheer weight of evidence that points to the regime.
As I keep saying Golden, when free and open elections are held the ‘regime’ will have earned the right to call itself a government (if it wins the vote). Until then it is a regime.
Really Jason, lol? Have you read the full report? Or just the extracts that John Kerry has spoon-fed you, how about you have a look at the nun Mother Agnes report which debunks the chemical attack as a false flag. No one buys your shite on Syria Jason, and Micks for that matter.
You mean the Mother Agnes “report” which has been thoroughly debunked by actual experts in the field of video analysis? Golden, even the state news broadcaster of Russia has admitted that the regime is the most likely culprit behind the Damascus attack. Is it really that hard to accept that the regime did it when all the evidence points to them as the only group that could have possibly committed the attack?
And just as an FYI, I’ve read the report. Perhaps you should read it entirely instead of selectively combing through it for anything you can hold on to like you quite clearly have.
Lol, pointless really anyone with a bit of sense and no bias in this conflict who’s researched it even a little knows full well the situation, so you can keep talkin through yer hoop pal.
Anyone with no bias? So then why would the Russians, who are the staunch allies of Assad who have basically kept him in power these last two years, openly admit that the regime most likely committed the attack in Damascus? How are they biased against Assad?
There’s someone speaking out of their rear end here alright, you’re just pointing at the wrong person.
Haha who said the Russians came to this conclusion? The Americans? Off yer game.
Golden, you should write a book about all these false flag operations you believe in. Seoirse would love a copy in his Christmas stocking this year.
Im meeting Seoirse next week to discuss writing one…Noonans Bedtime Stories, ages 8+
For the nth time of asking Golden, can you present your evidence that rebel forces carried out the damascus gas attacks (ps. saying “Assad wouldn’t have done it” is not evidence).
Whatever book you write Golden, I’m sure coming from you it’ll be a masterpiece of fiction and not a documentary.
Golden, can you put lots of pictures in it for me? Make sure you use big letters in seoirse’s book.
The 21 month old boy in the photo above is apparently in “Tropoli” in “Lebanon”..Journal you are slowly but surely lowering yourselves to the standard of a ragmag…If the editor of this article doesn’t know where Tripoli is how the hell can your articles be taken seriously…
Seoirse , your name means “Freedom”..I hopw that’s what you want for the Syrian people.
The Tripoli in question is in fact in Lebanon. See http://goo.gl/maps/sCvpP
Re Michael.
Free elections promised for next year in Syria, so let’s wait and hear.
You are wrong in your translation of the word by the way.
Sorry Michael
Two Tripolis, Lebanon and Libya
If Assad had promised free elections in 2011 there wouldn’t have been a conflict. The ordinary Syrian people have been waiting for the opportunity to vote for who they want since the early 1970′s.
Re Mattoid.
You are wrong. If the Syrian government had not signed the gas pipeline deal with Iran and Iraq there would have been no a Western instigated uprising.
And just how do you suppose the west “instigated an uprising” if Assad had the full support of the Syrian people as you have also claimed? I suppose the west also forced Assad to massacre unarmed protesters as part of this instigation?
According to a list on the UNHCR website, 139 organizations are helping the people in Zaatari. Doctors Without Borders is there, and so are Electricians Without Borders and Gynecologists Without Borders. Clowns Without Borders, which performs in crisis zones to cheer people up, has already left.
Spiegel
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