Visit The Syria Report Subscribe to our mailing list
EN ع
  • Twitter
Syria Report
  • All articles
  • News
  • Analysis & Features
  • Reports & Papers
  • Regulations
  • Directory
  • Search
  • Menu Menu
Home1 / HLP2 / News3 / Demolitions Target Palestinian Refugee Camp in Lattakia4
Print Friendly, PDF & Email

Demolitions Target Palestinian Refugee Camp in Lattakia

08-07-2020/in HLP, News /by admin

Five people, including three Lattakia City Council members, died when an unlicensed four-storey building collapsed in the informal Al-Ghurraf neighbourhood of Lattakia’s Al-Ramal Al-Janoubi district after city authorities moved to demolish the structure on June 24.

Al-Ramal Al-Janoubi is an unofficial Palestinian refugee camp that sits along a waterfront stretch in the south of Lattakia city. Established in the 1950s by Palestinians who had fled their homes, much of the camp consists of makeshift housing built without government permission. Al-Ramal Al-Janoubi was home to as many as 10,000 Palestinians before 2011, according to UNRWA, the UN’s Palestinian refugee agency, although some estimates are lower.

The demolitions fall under Legislative Decree No. 40 of 2012 on informal housing and building violations. When municipal authorities implementing the law face opposition from residents, they utilise Company 215 of Military Security, a branch of the intelligence apparatus, which has a presence in all governorates.

Any building that does not obtain a licence is considered in violation of the law, regardless of the property’s legal category. In general, residents of so-called ashwaiyat—or informally built “slum” areas such as Al-Ramal Al-Janoubi—are unable to obtain building permits through regular means. This is due to the legal description of the land, whether it is owned by the government or communally owned by several residents. Municipalities may refrain from granting building licenses pending zoning plans for the area in question.

Municipalities in Syria do not recognize real estate that is in violation of legal codes and since 2019 have been more strictly informing those who want to purchase non-licensed real estate that their property will be subject to demolition, in an attempt to legally absolve themselves.

Demolition patrols often sympathise with residents and do not go through with the demolitions, or accept bribes to only partially damage the targeted buildings, leaving them in a repairable condition. The Ministry of Local Administration recently tightened implementation of Legislative Decree No. 40 of 2012, which requires the destruction of buildings found to be in violation of the building code after the date of the decree’s issue (May 20, 2012) no matter the type, location or usage. Implementation is often strict in neighbourhoods considered to be anti-regime, including Al-Ramal Al-Janoubi in Latakia. In 2019, the ministry removed four municipal heads from their positions in the Damascus Countryside governorate, due to what it said was “negligence and failure to follow up on carrying out Decree No. 40.”

Lattakia’s Al-Ramal Al-Janoubi in particular suffers from high population density, with buildings crammed closely together. Only one main road, called the Sea Road, crosses through the district. Residents also suffer from a lack of public services.

Construction of the Al-Ramal Al-Janoubi dates back to 1952, when it was established as a camp by land taken over by the Syrian government’s General Authority of Palestinian Arab Refugees, a part of the Ministry of Local Affairs and Labour, on Property No. 1140, under Decree No. 2316. The camp takes up an area of 2.2 hectares, with an extension on the northern end, known as Al-Ramal Al-Shamali, inhabited by Syrians.

UNRWA does not recognise Al-Ramal Al-Janoubi as an official camp, but rather as a Palestinian “grouping” or community. The agency does still, however, provide some education, health, and social relief services, and runs four preparatory and primary schools. There is no real difference in services that UNRWA provides to camps that it recognises and those it does not. The matter is related to the agency’s administrative classifications. Also, since Palestinians left the Yarmouk Palestinian refugee camp outside of Damascus in 2013 due to the siege imposed by regime forces, UNRWA has been providing financial assistance to UN-registered Palestinian refugees from Syria wherever they are.

Al-Ramal Al-Janoubi has also become home to large numbers of impoverished Syrians, with the construction of unlicensed buildings expanding to beyond the boundaries of the camp’s official property lines. The camp is now three times larger than its original area, despite there being only 6,728 Palestinian refugees still living there, according to statistics released in 2010 by the Palestine Liberation Organisation’s Department for Refugee Affairs. Some 100,000 total residents live in the camp.

Syrian security forces view Al-Ramal Al-Janoubi as an anti-government hotspot, after residents joined early demonstrations against the government in 2011. At the end of 2019, the Lattakia governorate authorities launched a sudden campaign to demolish a number of homes in the district. The campaign came as news emerged that the governorate had signed contracts with two tourism companies to redevelop the beach that runs along Al-Ramal Al-Janoubi.

Post Views: 12
Tags: english
Share this entry
  • Share on Facebook
  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on WhatsApp
  • Share on LinkedIn
  • Share by Mail
https://hlp.syria-report.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/Logo-300x81.png 0 0 admin https://hlp.syria-report.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/Logo-300x81.png admin2020-07-08 23:30:002022-01-18 12:42:45Demolitions Target Palestinian Refugee Camp in Lattakia

Read also

  • Explained: Limitation of Real Estate Disposal
  • NDF Extorts Real Estate in Homs’ Al-Zahraa Neighbourhood
  • Explained: How the General Directorate of Cadastral Affairs Stores Documents
  • Government Raises Prices of Alternative Housing in Marota City
HelpAbout usContact usAdvertise with The Syria ReportTerms & conditions
Copyright © 2022 The Syria Report – all rights reserved. Your use of this website is subject to our legal terms & conditions
Qaboun to be Rezoned Under Controversial Reconstruction Laws 10 and 23 COVID-19 Exacerbates Syria’s Socioeconomic Collapse
Scroll to top

This site uses cookies. By continuing to browse the site, you are agreeing to our use of cookies.

Ok

Cookie and Privacy Settings



How we use cookies

We may request cookies to be set on your device. We use cookies to let us know when you visit our websites, how you interact with us, to enrich your user experience, and to customize your relationship with our website.

Click on the different category headings to find out more. You can also change some of your preferences. Note that blocking some types of cookies may impact your experience on our websites and the services we are able to offer.

Essential Website Cookies

These cookies are strictly necessary to provide you with services available through our website and to use some of its features.

Because these cookies are strictly necessary to deliver the website, refuseing them will have impact how our site functions. You always can block or delete cookies by changing your browser settings and force blocking all cookies on this website. But this will always prompt you to accept/refuse cookies when revisiting our site.

We fully respect if you want to refuse cookies but to avoid asking you again and again kindly allow us to store a cookie for that. You are free to opt out any time or opt in for other cookies to get a better experience. If you refuse cookies we will remove all set cookies in our domain.

We provide you with a list of stored cookies on your computer in our domain so you can check what we stored. Due to security reasons we are not able to show or modify cookies from other domains. You can check these in your browser security settings.

Other external services

We also use different external services like Google Webfonts, Google Maps, and external Video providers. Since these providers may collect personal data like your IP address we allow you to block them here. Please be aware that this might heavily reduce the functionality and appearance of our site. Changes will take effect once you reload the page.

Google Webfont Settings:

Google Map Settings:

Google reCaptcha Settings:

Vimeo and Youtube video embeds:

Privacy Policy

You can read about our cookies and privacy settings in detail on our Privacy Policy Page.