Syrian refugees plead for help after storms strike

Swamped … a refugee tries to remove the mud and water from around his tent in the Zaatari refugee camp in Jordan. Photo: AFP

ZAATARI refugee camp, Jordan: Thousands of Syrian refugees in northern Jordan have appealed for help after three days of winter storms left them battling mud, water and plummeting temperatures.

''The situation has become absolutely miserable after three days of heavy rain,'' Yusef Hariri, 38, said at the Zaatari refugee camp near the border with Syria.

The father of four stood with his family in the mud and the freezing cold near their tent, which had been ripped apart by wind and water.

 

Syrian refugee children wait in freezing conditions for their familie's daily food ration at a refugee camp in Bab al-Salam on the Syria-Turkey border. Photo: AFP

''My sister's tent was also damaged. She and her five children have joined us in looking for a new tent. Not even animals live this way,'' he said in frustration, his clothes soaked by the continuing downpour.

 

The seven-sq/km Zaatari camp, home to more than 62,000 Syrian refugees, was almost entirely swamped.

Some refugees dug shallow trenches around their tents in a vain attempt to keep the water out.

Mohammad Hamed, 30, and his wife tried to move some of their belongings to his brother's tent.

''My tent has been destroyed. I tried to fix it but it did not work. We don't know what to do,'' said Hamed who fled the conflict in Syria a month ago. ''We need help. Urgent help. If this situation continues, our children will die.''

Torrential downpours swept through the desert in Jordan for a third day on Wednesday, sparking widespread flooding and chaos as a wave of abnormal storms blasted the Middle East.

''We are told to be patient. How can children be patient? They need blankets to feel warm. Nobody feels for us. We should have stayed in Syria,'' said Hariri, who fled the flashpoint Daraa area in the south four months ago.

The United Nations refugee agency, UNHCR, said on Tuesday that two days of bad weather and heavy rain had destroyed 500 out of Zaatari's 4500 tents. It added that it was working with the government to move the refugees into some of the 4000 caravans already at the Zaatari camp.

Jordan said it was hosting more than 290,000 Syrians, and hundreds more were crossing the border daily fleeing the fighting between President Bashar al-Assad's forces and rebels.

More than 21 months of violence in Syria have killed at least 60,000 people, the UN reported. It predicted the number of Syrian refugees in neighbouring countries would double to 1.1 million by June if the civil war does not end.