Dear Deeply Readers,

Welcome to the archives of Syria Deeply. While we paused regular publication of the site on May 15, 2018, and transitioned some of our coverage to Peacebuilding Deeply, we are happy to serve as an ongoing public resource on the Syrian conflict. We hope you’ll enjoy the reporting and analysis that was produced by our dedicated community of editors contributors.

We continue to produce events and special projects while we explore where the on-site journalism goes next. If you’d like to reach us with feedback or ideas for collaboration you can do so at [email protected].

BROWSE THE SYRIA DEEPLY ARCHIVES

Syrian Refugees Flee to Northern Iraq

Since mid August, more than 60,000 Syrians have fled to Iraqi Kurdistan. Many have faced a long walk through sweltering heat from Damascus or Aleppo, with growing numbers coming from Al Hassaka governorate, in northeastern Syria, following increased fighting in the area.

Written by MSF Staff Published on Read time Approx. 3 minutes

As well as preparing for a large influx of refugees when the border opens, MSFs teams are treating people on both sides of the crossing. The majority of patients are children, pregnant women, or those who have just given birth.  People with chronic conditions such as hypertension, asthma and epilepsy are also seeking treatment after months of not being able to get the drugs they need in Syria due to the collapse of the country’s health system.

We have footage, pictures and spokespeople who have just returned from the field available, please call Sophie-Jane Madden on 0207 067 4217 or 07770 235 740.

Thanks,

Sophie-Jane.

MSF provides emergency care to Syrian families fleeing to Iraqi Kurdistan 

With the border crossing between Syria and Iraqi Kurdistan set to reopen, the international medical organisation Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders (MSF) is preparing its teams at the border and in the surrounding camps to respond to a large influx of refugees from Syria.

“We came from Tel Brak in northeastern Syria,” says Zeina, who crossed into Iraqi Kurdistan with her husband and four children before the crossing was closed in mid-September. “Seven months ago we left our house as the area was becoming a war zone. The entire village left,” she says.

“We lived for seven months in the mountains, with no proper place to live, no work, no money and sometimes no food,” Zeina says. “Then we decided to move to Al Qamishli and cross the border from there into Iraq. The border was closed, so we had to stay in a school nearby. When we heard that the border was open again, we left early in the morning. It took us two hours to cross on foot. We’re so relieved to be here.”

The long walk to safety

Some 60,000 refugees from Syria crossed the border into Iraqi Kurdistan in the monthfrom 15 August, when it reopened after three months of closure. On the day it reopened, 7,000 people crossed the border; over the next month, some 800 Syrians crossed each day.

Most of the refugees arrive at the border on foot after a long walk through a desert valley in intense heat. While the majority of the refugees come from Damascus and Aleppo, there have been growing numbers coming from Al Hassaka governorate, in northeastern Syria, after increased fighting in the area.

Most patients are women and children

MSF teams have set up health posts on both sides of the border, providing medical consultations and distributing water to refugees waiting to be transferred to a number of transit camps which are currently being set up in Dohuk, Erbil and Sulaymaniya governorates.

 “The majority of our patients are children, pregnant women, and mothers who have recently given birth,” says Paul Yon, MSF’s head of mission in Dohuk. “Many are suffering from moderate dehydration due to the long distance they’ve had to walk, or the long waiting time before crossing the border.”

State of shock

Syria’s ruined health system has also taken a heavy toll on patients with chronic diseases, while some patients are in a state of shock. Yon says, “We are also seeing cases of chronic disease such as hypertension, asthma and epilepsy. Some patients have not been able to access their medicines in Syria, where the health system has fallen apart. Other patients we see in our health post are in a state of shock: they have been displaced many times inside Syria since the conflict erupted, and they decided to cross the border because they faced life-threatening situations.”

On the Iraqi side of the border, MSF teams have provided more than 1,040 general healthcare consultations since mid-August to refugees waiting to be transferred to Dohuk, Erbil and Sulaymaniya governorates. With many refugees arriving without possessions, MSF teams have distributed relief items including jerry cans and plastic sheeting to 290 families in the transit camps. In the coming days, MSF will also start providing general healthcare consultations to refugees in a number of camps in Erbil governorate.

On the Syrian side of the border, MSF teams have provided 982 medical consultations and distributed water to 33,000 people waiting to cross into Iraq.

A new life as a refugee

Syrians entering Iraq are registered at the border by the Kurdish authorities and the UN’s refugee agency, the UNHCR. After registration, they are taken to one of the many refugee camps in northern Iraq. Since the conflict began, more than two million Syrians have sought refuge in neighbouring countries.

MSF teams have been providing assistance to Syrian refugees in northern Iraq since May 2012. ****MSF continues to monitor the situation at the border between Syria and Iraqi Kurdistan and remains ready to respond to urgent health needs. MSF teams are also working in Domeez refugee camp in Dohuk governorate, home to more than 42,000 Syrian refugees, providing general healthcare and mental health services. An MSF team is also assessing the needs of some 70,000 refugees who have settled in the city of Dohuk.

Republish this article

Our mission is to empower stakeholders and the wider public with high quality information, insights, and analysis on critical global issues. To help achieve this, we encourage you to republish the text of any article that contains a Republish button on your own news outlet.

By copying the HTML below, you agree to adhere to our republishing guidelines.

By copying the HTML below, you agree to adhere to our republishing guidelines. Click to expand

  1. In republishing any of our articles:

    Ensure that you include a line of our HTML tracking code on every article you republish. This is a lightweight, efficient way for us to see the number of page views of each specific article published on our partners’ websites. This does not affect page layout, nor does it provide any information about your users, other web pages on your site, or any further data. By copying and pasting the HTML code in the box below, the tracking code is automatically included.

    If, for any reason, you do not copy the code prepared for you, you must paste this code snippet into the end of the article in your CMS: 

    <img src="http://ping.newsdeeply.com/pixel.gif?key=99785&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.newsdeeply.com%2Fsyria%2Farticles%2F2013%2F10%2F03%2Fsyrian-refugees-flee-to-northern-iraq" alt="" />

  2. Adhere to the guidelines below:
    • Edit our stories only to reflect references to time (e.g. "today" to "yesterday"), location (e.g. "New York" to "here") or editorial style; do not edit the wording of our articles.
    • Include all the links within the story.
    • Credit our authors and partner institutions — ideally in the byline. We prefer “Author Name, Institution”
    • Note at the top and/or bottom of the story that it originally appeared on Syria Deeply. This note should include a direct link to the original article and a sentence that offers the reader the opportunity to join the Syria’s mailing list. Our recommended example is:
      • This should read : “This article originally appeared on Syria Deeply. You can find the original here. For important news about the war in Syria, you can sign up to the Syria email list.”
    • Do not republish a photo without our written permission. Some sources don't allow their images to be republished without permission.
    • Do not translate a story into another language without our written permission.
    • We often republish pieces from our partners. If you want to republish a partner’s story, you must credit the original partner and include a “via News Deeply” link.
    • Note that News Deeply considers the publication date to be the date marked on the story, and is not responsible for any content that you choose to repost.
    • After republication on the partner website, if you make an accompanying post on social media referencing the republished article, you must include the relevant Deeply social media handle in such post. For example, (i) for Twitter posts this means adding the appropriate @Deeply tag such as @SyriaDeeply, @WaterDeeply, or @WomensGirlsHub and (ii) for Facebook this means tagging the appropriate Deeply page in your Facebook post.
    • News Deeply material may not to be provided, in whole or in part, directly or indirectly, to third parties or affiliates for redistribution through those entities, unless you have received prior written approval from News Deeply.
    • You may not automatically or systematically republish any material from our sites; all stories must be chosen individually for republishing.
    • You may not sell our content or republish it for commercial purposes without our prior written consent.
    • We reserve the right to request that any partner ceases republication of our content, including but not limited to if the guidelines listed above not being followed.
    • If you have any questions or concerns please contact [email protected]

Suggest your story or issue.

Send

Share Your Story.

Have a story idea? Interested in adding your voice to our growing community?

Learn more