22 August 2015

The Guardian: “How Yarmouk refugee camp became the worst place in Syria”

This was how Yarmouk entered the world’s consciousness: a refugee camp designed as a safe haven for the Palestinian diaspora that had become the worst place on earth. No electricity for months. No piped water. No access for food. Worse still, no chance for people to leave or return, except for a handful of emergency medical cases or the few who had the means to pay people-smugglers to get them through the multiple checkpoints. Some called it Syria’s Gaza, but its plight was even worse, because the siege was more comprehensive; Yarmouk was a prison from which there was no escape.

But notoriety can be short-lived. When Gaza came under Israeli bombardment in July 2014 and the world’s media rushed to report the carnage, Yarmouk slipped back into obscurity. The opening in the siege that UNRWA had negotiated in January 2014 applied only fitfully throughout the year: food deliveries were only possible on 131 days, and often less than half the amount required got through. Since 6 December, the siege has once again become impassable. UNRWA reports that it has not been able to deliver any food at all for the past 12 weeks. We are getting new reports of people dying of malnutrition and of women dying in childbirth, but nothing can be confirmed, said Chris Gunness, UNRWA’s spokesperson. Unlike in Gaza, where UNRWA has several offices, the organisation cannot enter Yarmouk at all.

Jonathan Steele

An ongoing humanitarian crisis where nobody seems to be able to intervene, to put a stop to the suffering and misery. It hurts children the most, not only physically, but through the lack of education it limits their future perspectives – if they manage to survive, that is. And worse, the feeling there is no escape for the people trapped inside…

Palestinian refugees in Yarmouk
Palestinian refugees in Yarmouk, Damascus, queueing for food. Photograph: AP

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