Unable To Cross: Only Death, Despair at Syrian-Turkish Border (with VIDEO)

Following the earthquake, many Syrian refugees in rebel-held Idlib province have not received any aid or help from the outside world

[Istanbul] The situation at the Bab al-Hawa Border Crossing between Turkey and rebel-controlled Idlib Governorate in Syria is particularly dire following the massive twin earthquakes that hit in the early hours of Monday morning.

Speaking exclusively to The Media Line from the crossing, activist and aid worker Abdulkafi Alhamdo said no aid was getting across. “The situation at the border here is unbelievable. The roads are open but they are not allowing any aid to cross, only dead bodies,” he says via WhatsApp. “The situation here is chaos, and we need help.”

Activist and aid worker Abdulkafi Alhamdo describes the vehicles transporting dead bodies at Bab al-Hawa Border Crossing, on the Syrian-Turkish border. (Courtesy)

According to the United Nations, only one convoy of six vehicles carrying aid has managed to cross the border into northwest Syria since the first 7.8-magnitude earthquake struck. The convoy has barely made a dent in the relief and search-and-rescue operations going on in Idlib.

“What has happened in Syria since the start of the earthquake is indescribable. Syria and Idlib cannot survive this kind of catastrophe. We are already living in a state of war and the United Nations is not doing anything at the moment,” the father of two says.

Vehicle with dead Syrians from Turkey being transported back to Syria at Bab al-Hawa Border Crossing. (Courtesy)

According to Alhamdo, who is the project coordinator for I Still Rise, a local charity that runs various education and relief programs in Idlib, no official aid came across the border between Idlib and Turkey in the first critical 48 to 72 hours.

“I have been here at Bab al-Hawa crossing since the start and you can see the roads are open and not destroyed, but the only vehicles coming from Turkey are those carrying our dead [Syrian] brothers,” he describes. “Why is it that just the dead are allowed to cross? We need aid, we need search-and-rescue teams, we need help.”

Syria since 2012 has been in a state of civil war – during which over half a million Syrians have died and a further 13 million have been displaced.

The humanitarian situation was particularly acute in Idlib, the last area that is not under control by the Assad government, which is still having much of its infrastructure and buildings bombed regularly by regime and Russian airstrikes. On top of this, many who had fled the conflict and the Assad regime have temporarily settled in Idlib and have little shelter and cover from the bitter winter weather.

“Over half the population, around 2.8 million people who were internally displaced in Syria, came to Idlib, out of a population of just over 4 million,” Emmanuel Massart, the Middle East operations officer for Médecins sans frontières (Doctors Without Borders, abbreviated MSF), explains to us, adding, “And that figure, [the] people internally displaced in Syria, is only like to increase following this earthquake on Monday.”

MSF, which has been one of the few international charities that have been operating in Idlib since the start of the civil war in Syria, said the closure of the border crossing had not affected them yet but could in the future.

“So far we have not tried to cross, but we and our staff and facilities have been operating and in overdrive since the earthquake struck,” Massart explains, adding, “We are seeing a lot of injuries from the rubble and also now the cold weather conditions are making matters worse.”

MSF has in Idlib seven hospitals and over a dozen clinics, facilities that have been under significant strain and pressure since the earthquake struck.

“Because we were operating in Idlib [for the past 10 years] our teams have been able to react very quickly, but what we are finding now is that because of the level of destruction, a lot of our partner [organizations] need help too.”

The international charity – despite having a highly experienced staff – stresses that working in a war zone that has now been hit by one of the strongest earthquakes in the past century is putting a strain on its teams on the ground.

“There will definitely be a psychological impact on our staff. They were dealing with war in Idlib and Syria for 10 years before and this earthquake is only going to add to that,” Emmanuel states.

Along the Turkish border are a host of small villages and refugee camps hosting and supporting internally displaced persons who have fled the conflict elsewhere. One of those villages that I Still Rise gained access to in the first 24 to 48 hours was near the town of Reyhanlı, just west of Bab al-Hawa crossing.

“I went out [to see if I could help there] and saw a sea of destruction, hundreds of houses destroyed,” Alhamdo explains, adding, “My colleague and I went to the village of Reyhanlı that crosses the Turkish border. We found this boy [Haydar] whose family had survived, but most of his school friends, who were trapped under the rubble, [later] died.”

Earthquake survivor Haydar, in Reyhanlı, Turkey, carries a sign saying only dead Syrians are allowed to return to Idlib from Turkey. (Courtesy)

United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres on Thursday urged the Security Council to authorize the opening of new cross-border humanitarian aid points between Turkey and Syria to deliver UN aid to earthquake victims.

Some 4 million people living in the rebel-held areas of northwest Syria have been relying on humanitarian aid transported via the Bab al-Hawa crossing as part of a cross-border aid operation authorized by the UN Security Council nearly a decade ago.

But the flow of aid stopped following Monday’s 7.8-magnitude earthquake that has killed more than 37,000 people in the two countries, prompting Guterres to call for more crossings to be authorized.

“This is the moment of unity, it’s not a moment to politicize or to divide but it is obvious that we need massive support,” Guterres told reporters.

According to Alhamdo, Haydar and his family had not seen any aid or search-and-rescue teams since the earthquake struck Reyhanlı.

“[The villagers of Reyhanlı] were in desperate need of help to find and rescue those under the rubble,” Alhamdo told us, adding, “And we did not have the equipment to help them, either; we were digging with our hands to try to reach those buried under the earth. It was awful.”

Alhamdo – whose I Still Rise charity runs a school project not far from Reyhanlı in the town of Ad Dana region of Idlib, says the voices he heard of those children trapped in the destroyed buildings following the earthquake will haunt him for years to come.

“This earthquake has affected me psychologically; there is so much dead and destruction I saw, I could not escape it,” he states, adding, “Even when I got home and saw my children, I could not smile in front of them – even though I was thankful they were alive. I am still hearing these cries and screams in my ears from those people who were trapped under the rubble whom I could not help.”

Syria has been under Western sanctions since the government’s brutal crackdown on protesters in 2011, which spiraled into a civil war.

Guterres stressed that no sanctions should hamper relief efforts.

“This is a moment in which everybody must make very clear that no sanctions of any kind interfere with relief to the population of Syria in the present moment,” Guterres said.

Turkey said on Thursday it was working to open two more border crossings with Syria to deliver aid.