On the spot where a three-story building completely collapsed after a devastating earthquake struck northwestern Syria in February, a small tent encampment has sprung up. Residents call it “the camp of the forgotten.”
In one of the tents — which feels like a sauna during the daytime — sleep Fatima al-Miree, 61, and her family of seven. It’s pitched outside their single-story home, which still stands next to the encampment, but with cracks running threateningly up and down the walls. She said she had lost count of how many aid groups had come, photographed the damage and left.
“We haven’t seen even five liras from them,” Ms. al-Miree said. “We don’t have the money to make the repairs ourselves. If we work, we eat. If we don’t work, we don’t eat.”
More than six months after a powerful earthquake hit northwestern Syria and southern Turkey, many of those affected in Syria feel forgotten: There have been limited repairs and almost no rebuilding. And while the death and destruction in neighboring Turkey was far greater, the recovery effort in Syria is far more complicated.
In Syria, according to the United Nations, the quake killed more than 6,000, destroyed some 10,000 buildings and left about 265,000 people homeless. And it also cut across the front lines of a 12-year war, striking areas controlled by the government and by opposition groups, some backed by neighboring Turkey.
Millions of those living in the quake zone had already fled fighting, and many were sheltering in tents or other makeshift housing, reliant on international aid, when disaster struck again.
Despite this crisis within a crisis, there are no plans for a full-scale or organized reconstruction effort.
The situation has worsened recently. Last month, a U.N. resolution to allow cross-border aid from Turkey expired, putting much of the humanitarian support for the area in limbo.
On Sunday, three U.S. Congress members, including Representative French Hill, a Republican from Arkansas, briefly visited the Syrian side of one of the border crossings. It was the first visit by American lawmakers to this part of the country in a decade and Syrians said they hoped it would draw attention to the dire humanitarian situation and the need for more U.S. action to end the conflict.
The recovery from the quake so far has been piecemeal and ad hoc — some restoration of schools, sidewalks and marketplaces and some light home repairs. For the most part, Syrians have been left to pick up the pieces alone.
From the start, global aid efforts have been hampered not just by the territorial divisions but by an array of other obstacles stemming from the war, including international sanctions on the government, questions over property rights where many owners are displaced, and a province mostly controlled by a group that the United States has designated a terrorist organization.
“The whole debate on rebuilding and reconstructing has been very political for a long time,” said Bahia…
2023-08-27 09:56:17
Link from www.nytimes.com