A harrowing night-time escape
(CNN) -- With darkness as their only cover, Syrian families make a break for northern Jordan.
Life when fleeing everything
20,000 Syrians stream into Jordan
Syrian refugees set up camp, need aid
Jordanians head to the polls
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
- Women and children are among the refugees who walk across border to Jordan
- Families were shot at and people injured while trying to cross, Jordan Border Guard says
- Refugees walk for hours or days, carrying what they can, to escape civil war
- Jordan's resources are taxed, and winter "makes it even more difficult," border official says
They are fleeing for their lives.
Small children walk
alongside their mothers, whose arms are reserved for babies and whatever
possessions they can carry. In a treacherous nighttime escape such as
this one, you walk if you're old enough.
As the group makes its
way over the border, just a few meters away from its homeland, the
sounds of shelling can still be heard in the distance.
The war weary continue on, climbing a hill. There are no lights to illuminate their rocky path.
Want to help Syrian refugees? To donate or get involved, click below:
Still too close. Still too dangerous.
According to Jordan's
Border Guard, which gave CNN exclusive access to the area, many fleeing
families have been shot at in the past two weeks, and several people
have been injured while trying to cross.
On this cold night, the
number of wounded was far fewer. A member of the Border Guard met them
and led them to safety, where they were ushered into a tent and given
food. Some shivering children, wrapped in blankets, were too tired to
eat. Their parents recounted harrowing experiences.
"My daughter is 2 months
old," one woman said. "Don't you think it was extremely difficult on
this child to walk with her here in this cold?"
Another mother explained
the journey they took: "When we first got on the road, it was extremely
scary. I mean, we saw death all around," she said.
Life when fleeing everything
20,000 Syrians stream into Jordan
Syrian refugees set up camp, need aid
Jordanians head to the polls
One man, who arrived
with his wife and five children, detailed the high price of this
pilgrimage -- one he was all too willing to pay.
"All we were able to
bring with us were the clothes on our backs and the clothes we were able
to pack in this bag," he said. "Everything else is back in Syria, but
the security situation there is terrible. We can't return."
Most of those who made
the journey on this night were women and children. Some had walked for
hours, others for days, coming from cities as close as Daraa and as far
as Aleppo. Many were too afraid to share their names or appear on
camera, for fear of reprisal or that relatives back home would be
targeted.
Close by, in the back of
a Jordanian ambulance, sat an 80-year-old woman who'd been carried
across the border. She hated leaving home but had no choice, recounting
how several members of her family had been killed in just a few days'
time.
"The first day, they killed my nephew," she said, her voice brimming with anger at a regime she despised.
"The second day, they killed my niece. Third day, my cousin. Fourth day, another cousin. Four days, and every day a killing."
The United Nations
estimates that at least 60,000 people have died in 22 months of fighting
between government forces and rebels seeking to depose President Bashar
al-Assad. Now, Syrians are crossing into Jordan in record numbers, with
at least 350,000 refugees having flowed into Jordan since the beginning
of the Syrian conflict.
At least 40,000 have
arrived in Jordan this year alone, and half of that has been in the past
week, Jordanian government officials say.
Foreign Minister Nasser Judeh described the numbers as "staggering."
"This is obviously a
reflection of the level of violence in southern Syria, and there will
probably be more in the next few days," he said last week. "We are
getting aid. We are getting aid from Arab countries, from Western
countries, from international organizations. It is still not enough,
given the numbers that are coming in."
Last week, the
International Rescue Committee warned of a "protracted humanitarian
emergency" in Jordan, Lebanon, Turkey and Iraq, which have absorbed
about 600,000 Syrian refugees since the conflict began.
On Monday, Oxfam launched an $18.9 million emergency appeal to help up to 120,000 Syrians.
"In Jordan alone, there
has been a threefold increase in the daily rate of people crossing from
Syria in the last week," said a statement from the aid agency, which
added that "extreme winter weather was compounding misery for refugees,
with an increase in respiratory infections and pneumonia recorded in
clinics in Lebanon and Jordan."
Jordan's Border Guard told CNN the border will remain open but that the exodus from southern Syria has severely taxed resources.
"It takes a huge effort
to mobilize this response right now," said Brig. Gen. Hussein al-Zuyud,
commander of the Border Guard. "We're in winter, and that makes it even
more difficult.
"On the front lines, at
the crossing points, there are times when we have to stay with the
refugees for 48 hours, which requires logistical tools and supplies,
heating supplies and blankets. And all this is an added burden on us."
From the border, the
refugees are loaded onto buses that will take them to their new home:
the Zaatari Camp outside Amman, which already houses around 80,000 of
their fellow Syrians.
Most of the families
simply seemed happy for a respite. Having left war-ravaged homes and
tattered belongings behind, they were ready for a new start, no matter
how temporary. Even a tent would be better than the alternative.
"There's nothing we
weren't hit by," said one woman, whose voice welled with emotion when
describing the trauma of just trying to survive back in Syria. "Rockets,
barrel bombs, warplanes -- the shells were falling on us like rain." COPY http://edition.cnn.com/WORLD
Nenhum comentário:
Postar um comentário