UNICEF calls for repatriating children in Syria’s Hawl after deadly fire

World 10:55 AM - 2021-03-01

Photo Credit: AFP

On Sunday, the UNICEF Regional Director for the Middle East and North Africa, Ted Chaiban, said that countries should do everything possible to reintegrate the children in Hawl camp, northeast Syria, into their own societies and repatriate them in a “safe and dignified way.”

 

According to local sources, the fire started after a stove exploded in a tent while displaced Syrians were celebrating a wedding and then the fire spread to other tents during the wedding of a camp staff member.

 

Chaiban’s call came after a deadly fire broke out in the Hawl camp, which resulted in the death of 5 children and the burning of more than 30 people, most of them were women and children.

 

Local source has initially reported 3 deaths, two children and a woman, but the number later changed to 5 children.

 

“We call on all member states to provide children – who are their citizens or born to their nationals – with civil documentation to prevent statelessness.”

 

“Children in Hawl camp are faced not only with the stigma they are living with, but also with very difficult living conditions where basic service are scarce or, in some cases, unavailable,” Chaiban added. 

 

There are more than 22,000 foreign children of at least 60 nationalities who languish in camps and prisons, in addition to many thousands of Syrian children, according to Chaiban.  

 

In the same context, and in a statement released on Sunday, the UN Resident Coordinator and Humanitarian Coordinator for Syria, Imran Riza, and the Regional Humanitarian Coordinator for the Syria Crisis, Muhannad Hadi, expressed their sorrow over the deadly fire at the Hawl camp.

 

They extended their heartfelt sympathy to the affected families and wished those injured a quick recovery.

 

“The injured are still under medical supervision in the hospitals because their burns are severe,” Dr. Diy’a al-Ahmad, head of the surgeries in the camp, told North Press.

 

Run by Kurdish officials in NE Syria, the Hawl camp houses 62,000 Syrians and Iraqis and has a special section for 11,000 women and their children of 50 Western and Arab nationalities. The camp also hosts a separate annex for thousands of foreign women and children accused of family ties with IS.

 

Hawl camp consists of nine sections, eight of which are for Iraqi refugees and Syrian IDPs who fled ISIS war, but another section includes thousands of families of ISIS members.

 

NGOs have sounded the alarm over dire conditions in the Hawl and the lack of medical care.

 

A UN expert said earlier this month that people in the camp were living in "horrific sub-human conditions".

 

The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said the Hawl camp was home to more than 31,000 children aged under 12.

 

"The recent increase in violent events at the camp underscores that the camp is no place for any child to grow up," it said in a statement this month.

 

 

 

PUKmedia