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.
Journalist Ward Mardini from the Eastern Ghouta indicated that the refugees’ crisis aggravated due to the sharp increases in their numbers after the recent military campaign on the area. In addition, there is scarcity in food reliefs because 70% of farming lands were burned.
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 the eastern Ghouta accommodates nearly 11000 families that had fled the towns of al-Marj. Of these families, about 3000 recently came from al-Ahwash, al-Maida’ani, and Hazrama.
Mrs. Safaa, a refugee from al-Maida’ani, described the sufferings of her family due to displacement, saying, “We had a big house and a farming land, but the regime conducted airstrikes on them, which forced my husband and four children and I to leave the area. Now, we live in one room, but I am happy because we are in a better situation than families that set up tents in the streets because they did not have houses.”
Other displaced people demanded the accommodation offices as well as the local council in the Eastern Ghouta to return the favor of al-Marj citizens who had shared their own houses with refugees coming from other areas in the Ghouta in the early days of the Syrian revolution.
It is noteworthy that al-Marj refugees are in critical need for food and medical reliefs, under heavy and continuous airstrikes on the Eastern Ghouta by the Syrian regime, which caused dozens of casualties and heavy damages to buildings and infrastructure.