IDPs from Afrin, Shahba demand safe return home

Several women forcibly displaced from Afrin and Shahba recall the first hours of displacement and the suffering their families endured for an entire year in shelter centers, as they spoke to our agency.

Zeinab Al-Abdullah, one of the displaced women from Afrin, says that “the first day of last December was the hardest day in her life and in the lives of thousands of families who were displaced for the second time after being uprooted from Afrin to Shahba.”

She adds: “We were sitting safely, and suddenly they told us to leave… bullets hit the houses, and we fled with only the clothes we were afraid  of the Turkish occupation attacks.”

She explains that many children got lost during the moments of escape due to the fear and panic spreading among the population. She stresses that Syria is a homeland for all its children, regardless of their ethnicity or affiliations. She continues: “We moved from Shahba to Raqqa, lived in camps and stadiums for days, then were transferred to schools.”

She renewed her appeal to the United Nations and human rights organizations to secure real international guarantees that allow them to return safely to their homes.

For her part, Arifa Habash, also displaced from Afrin, says she lived eight years in Shahba before being displaced again last year, describing the day as “extremely harsh.”

She says: “For a year we have been suffering psychologically. Why are we displaced when we are a Syrian people? Why are our homes and lands being taken? What is our fault to be displaced from our homes? Syria is for all Syrians, whatever their ethnicities.”

Arifa Habash confirms that violations in Afrin and Shahba have not stopped, including killing, kidnapping, and daily assaults, considering return impossible in the absence of protection guarantees. She adds: “We want to return with our dignity, and we appeal to the United Nations and all countries of the world to see what is happening in our areas.”

As for Mervat Hamada, she describes the first day of December as “the second wound for the people of Afrin,” as families were forced to leave the Shahba region due to Turkish occupation attacks.

She explains: “A whole year has passed and we are in shelter centers that do not protect us from the cold or the summer heat… every day is a new suffering.”

Mervat Hamada demands recognition of their fundamental rights, foremost among them their legitimate right to safe return to their homes, stressing that this right cannot be relinquished.

a.k

ANHA