Baladi News – Damascus Countryside (Tarek Khawwam)
The eastern Ghouta province in Damascus countryside has recently witnessed a new internal displacement from the towns of al-Marj in the south towards relatively safer internal areas after advances of the Syrian regime forces.
The recent displacement of hundreds of civilians caused overpopulation in a small spot of land besieged for three years, which made sleeping in the open a usual scene in the streets of Ghouta that undergoes daily airstrikes.
The local council of Damascus countryside declared inability to accommodate and rescue the refugees from al-Marj, and called upon humanitarian and civilian organizations to interfere and provide assistance for the displaced before a humanitarian crisis takes place. It is noteworthy that nearly 1000 families fled areas in Damascus countryside that had been taken by the Syrian regime.
In general, the internal refugees in Syria as well as besieged people have not received appropriate attention by the states participating in finding a solution to the “Syrian Crisis”. Also, these states have not contributed to exert any pressure on Assad’s regime that denied the access of aid to the blockaded provinces despite the approval of the UN of airdrops on them.
Human aid actually reached in the eastern Ghouta, however, it turned out that they were limited to few cartons of cleaning tools, which led people to describe the aid as a “comedy”.
Each day, the displaced suffer from very difficult living conditions. One of them told Baladi News the story of his displacement, saying “I left my house and farm in search of safety, but I found myself homeless, either moving among my friends’ houses or sleeping in the open.”
Head of accommodation center in Saqba city, Abu Hussein, told Baladi News, “In the center, we are still trying to provide houses for the displaced, but we are suffering from a difficult housing crisis in a small area of land, which forces us sometimes to lodge more than one family in one house.”
The villages of al-Marj in the south of Damascus eastern countryside are void of its residents except the relatively calm town of Otaya. Meanwhile, the villages and towns of Hosh al-Salihiyya, Midaa, al-Nashabia, Bayt Nayem, and al-Qasimiyya indergo heavy fire shooting by the regime forces, whereas Harran al-Awamid, Deir al-Asafir, and Bzina are already controlled by the Syrian regime forces.