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Daily Life on Alien Soil: A Look at Refugee Camps on Syria's Perimeter

© AFP 2023 / PHILIPPE HUGUENYoung migrants get warm around a brazier in the migrants camp of Grande-Synthe, near Dunkirk, on January 20, 2016, where almost some 2,500 migrants and refugees live, mostly Iraqi Kurds and Syryans
Young migrants get warm around a brazier in the migrants camp of Grande-Synthe, near Dunkirk, on January 20, 2016, where almost some 2,500 migrants and refugees live, mostly Iraqi Kurds and Syryans - Sputnik International
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Since the outbreak of the Syrian civil war nearly five years ago, 4.8 million people have fled the country's violence and collapsed infrastructure and become refugees abroad; most displaced Syrians have sought refuge in safer parts of Syria, as well as in nearby Turkey, Lebanon, Jordan, Iraq, and Egypt. Here are pictures of their everyday lives.

According to the estimates of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), up to 7 million Syrians are displaced within Syria; half are children.

© AFP 2023 / MUJAHED ABUL JOUDDisplaced Syrians fleeing areas in the northern embattled province of Aleppo, walk past tents at the Bab al-Salama camp, set up outside the Syrian city of Azaz on Syria's northern border with Turkey on February 12, 2016
Displaced Syrians fleeing areas in the northern embattled province of Aleppo, walk past tents at the Bab al-Salama camp, set up outside the Syrian city of Azaz on Syria's northern border with Turkey on February 12, 2016 - Sputnik International
Displaced Syrians fleeing areas in the northern embattled province of Aleppo, walk past tents at the Bab al-Salama camp, set up outside the Syrian city of Azaz on Syria's northern border with Turkey on February 12, 2016

Many of them have fled to the city of Azaz in the northwestern Syria, roughly 32 kilometers (20 miles) north-northwest of Aleppo.

​Daesh (Islamic State/ISIL/ISIS) made Azaz one of its main hubs from mid-2013. According to representatives of the Syrian Kurds, Islamist fighters used to cross into Syria from Turkey through Azaz. Rebel fighters used it to receive supplies from Turkey and their casualties were sent the other way to hospitals inside Turkey.

​The gateway remained just that until recently, when the Kurds of northern Syria moved in.

​​The area is home to the Bab Al-Salam refugee camp in Azaz, near the Syrian-Turkish border.

Mafraq, Jordan

In 2015, Zaatari refugee camp in Jordan celebrated its three year anniversary.

© AFP 2023 / KHALIL MAZRAAWIA picture taken on March 15, 2014 shows men having tea the sprawling desert Zaatari refugee camp in northern Jordan near the border with Syria which provides shelter to around 100,000 Syrian refugees
A picture taken on March 15, 2014 shows men having tea the sprawling desert Zaatari refugee camp in northern Jordan near the border with Syria which provides shelter to around 100,000 Syrian refugees - Sputnik International
A picture taken on March 15, 2014 shows men having tea the sprawling desert Zaatari refugee camp in northern Jordan near the border with Syria which provides shelter to around 100,000 Syrian refugees

The camp was constructed in 2012 by the Government of Jordan and international agencies as part of a massive emergency response after the civil war started in 2011.

​Zaatari’s basic structure was constructed in just nine days and was initially home to just 100 families, but after exponential growth it is now home to 81,000 inhabitants, all living within its five-mile (8 kilometers) circumference.

UNHCR Special Envoy ​Angelina Jolie visited the camp and met with refugees in December 2012.

​Due to the unplanned nature of the camp’s growth, services are unevenly distributed across its vast expanse. For many residents, accessing basic amenities is a daily challenge as health and education services can be far away from where they live.

© AFP 2023 / JOSEPH EIDSyrian refugee children stand on November 15, 2015, at a makeshift camp by Taybeh village, in Lebanon's eastern Bekaa Valley
Syrian refugee children stand on November 15, 2015, at a makeshift camp by Taybeh village, in Lebanon's eastern Bekaa Valley - Sputnik International
Syrian refugee children stand on November 15, 2015, at a makeshift camp by Taybeh village, in Lebanon's eastern Bekaa Valley

Many Syrian refugees have also crossed into Lebanon, making it home to the highest number of refugees per capita in the world.

​​Some 70 per cent of the over 1 million Syrian refugees in Lebanon now reportedly live in extreme poverty, according to the country's standards.

© AFP 2023 / ARIS MESSINISRefugees and migrants live at a field outside the Moria Hot Spot on the Greek Lesbos island on November 12, 2015
Refugees and migrants live at a field outside the Moria Hot Spot on the Greek Lesbos island on November 12, 2015 - Sputnik International
Refugees and migrants live at a field outside the Moria Hot Spot on the Greek Lesbos island on November 12, 2015

About 10 percent of the Syrian refugees have fled to Europe. Many of them have landed on the island of Lesbos, Greece.

​The island has received the highest number of refugee arrivals in Greece: in 2015, more than 100,000 have arrived on this island.

© AFP 2023 / LOUISA GOULIAMAKISisters walk on railway tracks where refugees installed their tents at the makeshift camp of the Greek-Macedonian border near the Greek village of Idomeni, on March 5, 2016, where thousands of refugees and migrants wait to cross the border into Macedonia
Sisters walk on railway tracks where refugees installed their tents at the makeshift camp of the Greek-Macedonian border near the Greek village of Idomeni, on March 5, 2016, where thousands of refugees and migrants wait to cross the border into Macedonia - Sputnik International
Sisters walk on railway tracks where refugees installed their tents at the makeshift camp of the Greek-Macedonian border near the Greek village of Idomeni, on March 5, 2016, where thousands of refugees and migrants wait to cross the border into Macedonia

The majority of refugees use Lesbos as a transit point on their way to northern Europe.

Another refugee location is the Idomeni camp on Greece’s border with Macedonia. More than 5,000 people have been left stranded there since the end of February, after four Balkan countries announced a cap on refugee arrivals.

​The situation is set to worsen after Serbia, Macedonia, and EU members Slovenia and Croatia said that they would restrict the number of daily arrivals to 580.

​Austria also said that it would only allow 80 people a day to claim asylum, and would limit the daily number of people crossing the country to 3,200.

© AFP 2023 / PHILIPPE HUGUENMen wash up at a water source at the migrant camp known as the "Jungle" in Calais on December 7, 2015
Men wash up at a water source at the migrant camp known as the Jungle in Calais on December 7, 2015 - Sputnik International
Men wash up at a water source at the migrant camp known as the "Jungle" in Calais on December 7, 2015

The move has sparked a bitter spat between Athens and Vienna, with Greece fearful it will trigger a domino effect, leaving thousands more people stranded on its territory.

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