From Afrin to Qamishli: Repeated Paths of Displacement

Amid a wave of military confrontations and agreements between the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) and the transitional government forces in January, the areas under SDF control shrank considerably, now mostly confined to the predominantly Kurdish regions in north-eastern Syria. Waves of displacement followed, reshaping the demographic map of the region, after the city of Qamishli and the town of Kobani receiving tens of thousands of displaced people.

Researcher Sawsan Rashid, originally from Afrin, told The Syria Report that the overwhelming majority of the displaced are Kurds, a large part of whom are being displaced for the second or third time. Among them are those displaced from the Afrin area west of Aleppo, who fled after the Turkish “Olive Branch” operation in 2018, having previously been displaced to various areas under the control of the Autonomous Administration in North and East Syria (AANES). The new wave of displacement also includes those displaced from Sere Kaniyeh (known in Arabic as Ras Al-Ayn) and Tal Abyad, who fled following the Turkish military operation “Peace Spring” in 2019 to the Washokani and Al-Talai camps and shelter centres in the countryside of the Hassakeh governorate.

According to estimates by the Coordination Group of Local Organisations, which comprises around 35 civil organisations working to assist the approximately 37,500 displaced families that have arrived in the area. The greatest concentration of them was in Qamishli city, which received about 21,000 families. In the city of Kobani, there were around 15,000 to 18,000 displaced individuals, who had arrived in successive, quick waves from the cities of Al-Tabqa and Raqqa and from the countryside of Kobani. This influx has occurred amid difficult humanitarian conditions, with estimates indicating that more than 43 percent of the displaced are children, while the remaining percentage is divided between women, the elderly, and men. There is also a growing need for food, heating supplies, and healthcare.

Around 130 shelter centres have been opened in the city of Qamishli, including 70 schools and 30 mosques, the NGO Humanitarian Development Cooperation (HDC) aid organisation’s executive director Bilind Mella told The Syria Report. HDC is a member of the Coordination Group providing assistance. The shelters also include between 25 and 30 institutions belonging to the AANES. Large numbers of families also sought refuge in private homes. These centres, particularly schools, suffer from a severe shortage of services, as many lack toilets, water, sewage networks, doors, and windows in a large number of classrooms. As for the mosques, Mr Mella pointed out that they suffer from severe overcrowding that limits privacy, as well as major difficulties with heating, especially following two recent snowstorms.

Mr Mella said that the Coordination Group acted urgently to meet about 60 percent of the basic needs of the displaced through community-based mechanisms, but this response remains temporary and unsustainable. He pointed to the need for long-term intervention, particularly by international organisations, stressing the urgent need to expand the humanitarian response. That would include gradually vacating schools and mosques of displaced people, supporting water and sanitation services, securing food and children’s supplies, and strengthening health services, amid the continued waves of displacement and the current absence of sustainable solutions.

Many of those displaced today to Qamishli and Kobani are originally from the city of Afrin and its countryside. It is not their first time facing displacement. Since the Turkish-backed Syrian National Army (SNA) forces and allied Turkish forces launched the “Operation Olive Branch” in 2018, the Kurds of Afrin have been forced to flee their homes multiple times, eroding any sense of safety and stability.

Ahmad, from the village of Shiyeh near Afrin, is staying in a displacement shelter centre in the city of Amuda in the countryside of Qamishli. He recalled the moment when residents decided to leave Shiyeh in 2018 as the war and violations intensified, fearing massacres. He said that his family was displaced for the first time from Afrin to areas under the control of the AANES in eastern rural Aleppo, where they remained for seven years in an anxious and fragile situation, with a constant dream of one day returning to Afrin.

After the military confrontations that took place in early January in the Sheikh Maqsoud and Ashrafieh neighbourhoods of Aleppo and in eastern rural Aleppo, many displaced people from Afrin, including Ahmad and his family, chose to move to areas under the control of the majority-Kurdish AANES in the Raqqa governorate. However, their attempts to rebuild their lives there once again collided with recent clashes between transitional administration forces and the SDF, which led to the withdrawal of the SDF from those areas.

“Every time we try to improve our situation and feel some stability, we are forced to flee again because of the shifting war and the recurring reports of violations,” Ahmad said.

From the city of Al-Tabqa, Ahmad and his family continued their journey of displacement to cities in north-eastern Syria, yet the road itself was not free of danger. Ahmad recounted how the family came under gunfire from an armoured military vehicle on the road to Hassakeh, and how all their belongings were stolen. He then spent three days in Hassakeh city searching for family members who had been separated from him during displacement.

Umm Mazloum, also displaced from Afrin and currently residing in the city of Amuda, said her family faced similar attacks in the city of Al-Tabqa. “We did not know where our daughters had fled; we searched for them and could not find them,” she said. For her, displacement was not a choice but an attempt to survive, amid serious violations that included killings, as well as the siege of the area and shelling by tanks and artillery.

Umm Mazloum’s family initially fled barefoot from Al-Tabqa to the city of Qamishli, in extremely cold weather. They spent the night on the street before some local residents opened their homes to shelter them. Later, they moved to the city of Amuda, where they experienced similar hardship and found people who had, like them, already been displaced four or five times over the years of war.

Her story echoes that of Jumaa, also displaced from Afrin, who travelled with his family by foot from Al-Tabqa to Raqqa. From there, they took buses to Qamishli. Jumaa currently resides with his family in the Autonomous Administration’s Energy Authority building in Qamishli. Sitting on the pavement outside the building and watching a water tanker filling the cistern, he told The Syria Report that he owns nothing after his home in Afrin was seized. Today, he finds himself living with his five children in a single room, without daily necessities.

Hussein Sido, Director of the Afrin Displaced Council in the city of Qamishli, said that the displaced are living in extremely poor circumstances, especially those who are not staying in shelter centres and were forced to seek refuge with families who were themselves already displaced. He pointed out that families displaced for years in Qamishli are today hosting newly displaced families, doubling their daily burdens amid a severe shortage of services and support.

Mr Sido said that around 500 to 600 families displaced from Afrin chose to remain in Al-Tabqa, in addition to approximately 100 families in Raqqa. These families later managed to return to Afrin through trips organised by the transitional government. However, most of these families, according to him, found their homes seized upon their return by Turkey-backed factions affiliated with the Ministry of Defence, forcing them to stay with relatives or acquaintances.