Syrians have been left feeling forgotten as the impact of war and sanctions hampers aid efforts in the aftermath of the 7.8 magnitude earthquake that has left more than 21,000 people dead across Syria and Turkey.
Considerable efforts have been focused on sending supplies to Turkey but aid workers and members of the UK’s Syrian community have expressed concern that the recovery operations in war-torn Syria will take much longer due to access and infrastructure challenges.
Layal Mohammad, 32, a Syrian woman living in London, has spoken of the pain of knowing people in her home country are suffering with limited access to support following Monday’s earthquake, and is concerned about the level of attention that Syria has received in the wake of the tragedy.
Ms Mohammad told i: “I will convey to you what what the Syrians are saying: ‘we only have each other because no one cares about us’.”
Jeremy Smith, the Middle East and North Africa country cluster manager for the British Red Cross, said: “In Syria, this is very much a worst-case scenario for us. This is a nightmare scenario.
“We were working on the back of a cholera outbreak, we’re working on the back of some horrible winter storms and winter weather.”
Mr Smith added: “We know that the recovery effort in Turkey will probably be a lot quicker than what it will be in Syria.
“Syria already had reduced infrastructure and medical infrastructure, water and sanitation infrastructure, electricity infrastructure; getting access to fuel is incredibly hard in Syria.
“But we know that, because of the additional challenges of being an area that’s gone through 12 years of conflict crisis, the access challenges are going to be higher and the response is going to be a longer period.”
Ms Mohammad was born in Syria but came to the UK as a student and later sought asylum when the conflict in Syria escalated. She is encouraging people to send monetary donations to Syrian humanitarian organisations and NGOs working in the country such as Focus, the Red Crescent and The Aga Khan Development Network – which she works for – instead of clothes and food.
Her parents remain in Syria and are, for now, safe. But many others have not been as fortunate.
“I was speaking with my friends and family – they were just like, running barefoot,” she said. “There were people just like outside in the streets, not knowing what to expect, but this is in my area… But there are other areas regardless whether in the middle of Syria or in the north where people were buried under the rubble.”
She added: “It makes me feel the pain more because you’re away, and you think you can’t do much, although I think we can contribute in a different way, we can try our best. We can’t be with our families and loved ones… what I’ve been trying to do is just inform all my friends and all the people I know. I prepared messages explaining the situation in Syria so they could share it with others so they could donate and bring awareness.”
Ms Mohammad added: “It’s very sad. I have friends from Turkey, I’ve been checking on them but Turkey has been strong enough, it didn’t have to endure war and it’s getting international support more than Syria. Syria is not getting that support, and every time they speak about the US sanctions.”
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The US has severe sanctions imposed on Syria but issued a six-month exemption for humanitarian efforts to enable life-saving aid to reach those in need as soon as possible.
Ms Mohammad, a marketing and communications manager, said she fears it will be too late to save Syrians affected by the tragedy if aid agencies do not receive the funds they desperately need.
She said: “The problem is we don’t have the infrastructure after all these years of war and after inhumane and unethical sanctions, which have made the situation much worse really, and this is the issue because lots of people have been trying to contribute, but because of the sanctions, you don’t have the tools.”
“I think what’s important is transferring the money,” she said. “I think the focus really should be on Syria. This doesn’t mean that I feel sorry for Syrians and I don’t feel sorry for Turkey, but Syria is really in a big tragedy.
“Thousands of people need housing. Right now, it’s freezing winter, we already don’t have electricity [and] fuel because of the sanctions. We don’t have literally the basic things. So if there is money then this money [deserves to be spent] on the needs of people.”
A spokesperson for the Syrian British Medical Society (SBMS), which is collecting donations to support hospitals in northern Syria along with UOSSM and SAMS, told i aid was not reaching those most in need.
“We feel like the support is going to Turkey, it’s going then to Damascus, but it’s not reaching the people on the ground in northern Syria, so that’s the problem.
“Currently the main need actually is for those people who are struggling there in northern Syria, near Idlib and Aleppo, and near the border with Turkey. These areas are not supported by the regime in Syria, so most of the governmental aid to Syria will go through the regime in Syria, and the people who have suffered most and are in need are not getting given the full support that’s required unfortunately.”
The surgeon, who is living in the UK, said hospitals were struggling to deal with large numbers of casualties and needed every kind of medical support. As part of its efforts, the SBMS is planning to arrange medical missions to northern Syria soon.
He added many people remain trapped under the rubble in affected areas of Syria because of a lack of resources that require donations on an intergovernmental level.
He said: “They don’t have the diggers, they don’t have facilities to get people from under the fallen buildings… they need all this kind of huge support which can’t be offered to them by organisations or by people, it needs international support.
“What’s concerning us – because it’s been four days – people were hearing their relatives screaming for some help, but now everything went into silence. People are actually very frustrated. The White Helmets also they are working day and night, but they are working with their hands, digging with very primitive materials and instruments far from what can be offered what has been offered inside Turkey and what the regime in Damascus can offer.”
