ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Nearly 7,000 displaced families from different parts of Syria remain in camps in the Kurdish city of Afrin, a local official said on Sunday, as dwindling humanitarian assistance adds to challenges facing displaced people while thousands of others return to their homes.
“There are currently nearly 7,000 displaced families from different areas of Syria in the Afrin region,” Imad Nimeh, the official in charge of Social Affairs and Labor Department in Afrin, told Rudaw’s Nushin Heme.
“The number of camps in the region has fallen by half, with 80 camps remaining. These camps are mainly spread across central Afrin, Jindires and Shera,” Nimeh said.
“Support for these camps has almost completely been cut off, with only a few organizations providing limited assistance, such as hygiene kits,” he added.
Afrin, a predominantly Kurdish region in northwest Syria, has experienced years of displacement and demographic upheaval since Turkey and allied Syrian armed groups seized the area from Kurdish forces in 2018.
An agreement between the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces and the interim government in Damascus in January has allowed tens of thousands to return.
“The number of families who have recently returned to the Afrin region and registered with us has reached 17,000. Most of these families have returned from Aleppo and the Jazira region,” the local official said.
Local authorities are working to provide returning families with non-food items, direct financial assistance and rent support, according to Nimeh.
Nearly 100 recently returned families no longer have homes and have been accommodated in the Yed al-Oun residential village in the Shera area, where housing has been provided to them, he added.
Nimeh said authorities are also coordinating with the United Nations refugee agency (UNHCR) to arrange transportation for displaced families who want to return to their areas of origin.
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