Al -Jazeera Net Correspondents
Damascus- With the departure of the last families who were inhabiting the Rukban camp in the Syrian Badia, the end of a tragic stage of Syrian displacement is written, and a long semester of suffering is folded in one of the most isolated and difficult camps in Syria and the region, in which Syrian families lived for years under suffocating siege and catastrophic humanitarian conditions.
The camp established in 2014 near Tanf base On the border triangle between Syria, Iraq and Jordan, about 100,000 displaced people from the eastern countryside of Homs, Deir Ezzor, Raqqa, Aleppo, and Hama embraced, after they fled the bombing of the former Syrian regime forces,ISISAnd Russian raids.
Before the final dismantling process started, estimates indicate that the camp included between 8 to 10 thousand people, including women and children, but with the return of the residents to their villages, they faced a bitter reality due to the complete destruction and the lack of infrastructure, as the returnees found only the ruins of burned houses and lands.
Watch the disaster
Mohamed Hassan Al -Ayed, director of the Palmyra News Network, which covered the camp’s news for years, confirms in his interview with Al -Jazeera Net that despite the massive destruction in the areas to which the refugees returned, they preferred to return to their homes instead of staying in the camp, because life in it was more severe than the war itself.
Al -Ayed adds that the security siege and preventing any humanitarian aid from entering the camp into an unpredictable environment, as a number of people died due to a lack of minor drugs such as antibiotics or analgesics.
He described the situation in which the camp was “catastrophic by all standards”, noting that the return was made with voluntary motives, with the support of civil organizations and local initiatives, in addition to supporting some of the camp’s sons involved in the “Free Syria Army”, despite their limited capabilities.
Al -Ayed confirms that the camp has turned from a symbol of suffering to a witness to steadfastness, saying, “Today is a victory forThe Syrian revolutionAnd for a few few, it remained in the camp, whose land turned into a witness to the sacrifices of the Syrians.
Human detainee
With the complexity of the humanitarian situation and the continuation of the siege during the past years, the camp turned from a temporary station for fleeing the war, into a closed area that is stuck between geography and politics, and this shift was manifested in testimonies who led civil work inside the camp.
The former head of the local council in Rukban, Muhammad al -Darbas Al -Khaldi, explains that since 2012 the camp was a vital transit point for civilians fleeing the bombing and raids, but he gradually turned into a “human detainee”.
He added that the tragedy was exacerbated after the closure of the Jordanian border in 2015 after an ISIS attack, as it was banned from entering aid, and the arrival of the water that was pumped by an organization was restricted. UNICEF From inside Jordan, the medical points were closed, and the United Nations and humanitarian organizations were prevented from arriving, causing the death of women and children, some of them on the border curtain.
Al -Khalidi describes life in the camp as “daily suffering from fear and hunger”, where the residents were forced to build tents of straw and water bottles, in an open desert, amid harsh climatic conditions, and confirms that he remained completely trapped from his four sides: south of Jordan, east of Iraq, west and north of the Syrian regime forces and militias loyal to Iran.
Return challenges
Al -Khaldi says that many people were forced to live in abandoned farms or buildings without windows or water, and they did not receive any support from the Syrian government or international organizations, despite the provision of their addresses to the municipalities.
In recent days, groups of civilians began to leave the camp, and caravans known as the media as “the convoys of love” were formed by local efforts, to transfer the remaining families to their original areas.
The city of Palmyra, near the camp, which has witnessed violent battles during the past years, is facing a destruction rate of 90%, according to the testimonies of the population, without the presence of basic services or appropriate shelter, and the calls of the population and activists escalate to urgent intervention from international humanitarian organizations, to secure the most basic elements of life for returnees from the camp.
Muhammad al -Ahmad, a resident of the returning camp, explains to Al -Jazeera Net that the situation in Palmyra is no less difficult than the camp, but despite this, people chose to live in houses destroyed in the city to stay in the “Rukban Prison”.
Al -Ahmad calls on the concerned authorities and humanitarian organizations to provide assistance and secure the simplest ingredients for living in the affected areas, stressing that those who remain in the stirrups are confused by their command due to the destruction of their villages and lack of alternatives.
Calls from activists to convert the camp site also appeared into a documentary museum, which displays the testimonies of survivors and stories of steadfastness in the face of the siege, especially since its tomb includes more than a thousand people who died due to the siege and hunger.