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No Compensation for Owners of Razed Properties in Central Darayya District

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In the summer of 2018, the former mayor of Darayya in the Rural Damascus governorate, Marwan Obeid, announced on his personal Facebook account the commencement of a park construction project over an area of two dunums (0.2 hectares) that used to house old homes. Subsequently, municipal workers cleared the remnants of these houses and removed the debris. Since then, no change has occurred at the site, and none of the former property owners have been compensated.

The area, known as the Shreidi Triangle, contained large, old “Arab-style” houses built from brick and roofed with wood. In the triangle were six homes belonging to four families from the city: Al-Halaq, Abu Bakr, Koshk, and Fattah. Surrounding the houses were more than ten shops facing the adjacent streets, all dilapidated with thick walls constructed in the old style.

These properties were expropriated in the 1970s to create a public park. The residents resisted the takeover by staying in their homes, refusing to evacuate, and not accepting compensation for expropriation. Until 2011, the situation of these houses remained unchanged, and the expropriation decision was not implemented. In reality, the houses remained standing, but their structural safety deteriorated due to the owners’ inability to obtain restoration permits because of the expropriation decision. The owners were also unable to conduct any real estate transactions on them. The only action they took was to rent out some rooms facing the main streets as commercial shops.

The city of Darayya witnessed peaceful opposition to the regime since the beginning of the 2011 uprising. Due to its proximity to Damascus and the Mezzeh military airport, Darayya was subjected to a severe siege by regime forces between 2012 and 2016, which ended with the forced displacement of its inhabitants after entire neighbourhoods were levelled to the ground due to aerial bombardment by regime forces.

Local sources told The Syria Report that the triangle remained relatively intact until the forced displacement of its residents. These sources indicated that the area was subjected to demolition and bulldozing by the regime forces controlling the city between 2016 and 2018 and that the Triangle area was destroyed when the regime forces allowed the first visit to the city in 2018.

In 2018, the Urban Planning Directorate at the Ministry of Public Works and Housing discussed four proposed urban plans within the city of Darayya’s zoning plan. That same year, the Executive Office in the Rural Damascus governorate announced that the zoning plan for the city of Darayya was ready. In both instances, no change occurred in the Shreidi Triangle area, which remained designated as a public park.

In August 2018, the Rural Damascus governorate permitted residents to return, provided they submitted documents proving property ownership within the city and obtained prior security clearance. The partial return began in mid-2019. Since then, the city’s Executive Office has continued to remove some buildings it declares are at risk of collapse, unfit for habitation, or pose a danger to passers-by and neighbouring residents.

Abu Mohammad, one of the homeowners in the Triangle area, told a correspondent for The Syria Report that he owned a spacious Arab-style house comprising five mud rooms, a large courtyard, and shops facing the street. He added that before 2011, he attempted to lift the expropriation order on his house but lost the lawsuit he filed. In the winter of 2013, a military force affiliated with the regime took over the Shreidi Triangle area as part of its ground incursion into Darayya and established military sites there. Abu Mohammad stated that he remained in his house, confirming that the Triangle area did not suffer significant damage, did not witness notable battles, and was not subjected to bombardment. In the summer of 2016, Abu Mohammad and his family were displaced following the forced displacement of all Darayya’s residents, leaving his house intact. Only in 2019 did Abu Mohammad learn that his house, along with all the homes in the Triangle area, had been bulldozed.

Abu Mahmoud, the owner of a shop in part of a traditional clay house in the Shreidi Triangle, told The Syria Report that his old shop collapsed in 2012 due to lack of maintenance and the vibrations caused by indirect bombing targeting nearby areas. Abu Mahmoud had to move his shop’s contents to an adjacent room that was not damaged. At the end of 2012, he left Darayya and only returned in 2019 to find that the adjacent room had also been bulldozed, and he could not find any of his shop’s contents.

Everyone interviewed by The Syria Report, including homeowners and shopkeepers in the Shreidi Triangle, mentioned that they had not received any compensation for the expropriation of their properties before 2011. Today, after some of them returned and discovered the entire area was bulldozed, and they have yet to receive any compensation, any notification about the execution of the expropriation, or any notice requiring them to contact any official authority. Thus, it’s as if they never owned anything in the area, and the park, which had yet to materialise, was more important than their homes.

How Serious is the Aleppo City Council’s Anti-Corruption Campaign?

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More than 150 files have been referred to the “competent authorities” after the discovery of serious instances of corruption by the Aleppo City Council, the Director of Internal Oversight for the Aleppo governorate, Abeer Maktoubi, told semi-official newspaper Al-Watan on September 18. 

According to Ms Maktoubi, the Directorate of Internal Oversight receives written or recorded verbal complaints about corruption and other irregularities on the part of the Aleppo City Council. Upon receiving a complaint, the directorate examines the city council’s files related to the complaint, inspects the implemented works, reviews records, documents and data, meets with concerned individuals in the council and in the service directorates, as well as with the complainants, and seeks assistance from technical and legal experts. After that, the directorate prepares a preliminary report on the complaint and may propose referring it to a “competent authority” to investigate the incident.

Most of the violations committed by the city council are issues related to housing, land and property rights. These violations include overlooking and covering up unlicensed construction in exchange for material benefits, granting illegal construction permits regardless of regulations and instructions, the proliferation of unlicensed building and restoration in the old city in a manner inconsistent with its architectural fabric, neglecting to address reports from public safety committees, settling building violations based on forged documents or distorted facts, and forging  documents to buy more cement than granted for a construction project.

These violation cases were reportedly referred to the Central Authority for Supervision and Inspection, the Judiciary, and Criminal Security. These bodies are responsible for implementing recommendations, proposals and decisions to impose penalties and remove or address such violations. Maktoubi affirmed that the legal framework for addressing these cases is found within the provisions of the Building Violations Law No. 40 of 2012.

She added that more than 30 individuals have been referred to the competent authorities following proof of their involvement in the violations, some of whom are still detained. More than 55 individuals, including service and central directors in the city council, department heads, and monitoring workers, such as engineers and technicians, have been fired.

It is difficult to access independent sources in the city of Aleppo to obtain more information about those employees, their responsibilities, and the extent of their involvement in the attributed violations. The Syria Report managed to reach informed sources familiar with the work of the governorate council, who said they doubted the seriousness of the anti-corruption efforts led by Ms Maktoubi. 

The sources confirmed that the 150 individuals referred to the competent authorities are mostly ordinary employees involved in corruption cases; they are not at the top of the corruption ladder. These employees are not supported by security agencies or influential militias in Aleppo, making their prosecution easier. However, the sources emphasised that this path of selective justice has little impact on reducing corruption in municipal councils.

For example, the above sources indicated that no charges have been brought against the director of Services Department at the Aleppo City Council, who is not among those referred to any competent authority. Meanwhile, this director is allegedly involved in violations related to war rubble and the February 6 earthquake in Aleppo city. However, this director is considered to be under the patronage of the city council president, who is in turn responsible for the rubble file, preventing them from being held accountable.

Rubble is a highly sensitive issue in the field of HLP rights, as it is considered private property and the ultimate proof of people’s ownership of their unlicensed properties. Law No. 3 of 2018 (concerning the removal of rubble from damaged buildings due to natural or unnatural causes, or because they are subject to laws requiring their demolition) gave the owners of demolished properties the right to the value of their rubble. It left the determination of that value to the administrative units after selling the rubble in public auctions, or recycling the rubble and deducting the cost of demolition and removal from it. In Aleppo, no one has been compensated for their rubble, and Law No. 3 of 2018 has not been applied. A similar situation occurred with the rubble in Lattakia city after the February 6 earthquake, which was dealt with without referring to Law No. 3 of 2018.

The Syria Report’s local correspondent reported that there is a rubble recycling factory in the Ramouseh area, affiliated with the Aleppo City Council, which has been out of operation for two years. The city council has repeatedly announced that the factory is up for investment, without the auction settling on any investor. The correspondent pointed to the lack of clarity regarding why the factory is not being activated, although working in rubble is considered attractive to many investors. The factory is equipped with an 85,000-square-metre landfill capable of holding up to about 400,000 cubic metres of rubble, up to a height of five metres. Since the factory partially closed, the rubble in it has reached its maximum storage capacity.

Nevertheless, what exists in the landfill is a modest amount compared to the rubble of the eastern neighbourhoods of Aleppo city, estimated at around 3.6 million cubic metres before the February 6, 2023 earthquake. In addition, between 5,000 and 10,000 buildings were damaged in last February’s earthquake, which need to be removed, according to official statements made  to the residents. To this day, it is not clear how much rubble has been recycled in Aleppo amidst significant inconsistency in the official figures.

However, instead of activating the Ramouseh factory, the city council sold a large part of Aleppo’s rubble to private recycling plants, most of which are affiliated with militias supported by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, such as Liwa Al-Baqir. According to The Syria Report’s sources, the political representative of Liwa Al-Baqir, Omar Al-Hassan, has a rubble recycling plant in the Baeedeen area north of Aleppo, and has received hundreds of cubic metres of rubble transferred to it from Aleppo city in the past few months.

All of this occurs without any documentation of rubble ownership, and without any compensation to its owners. Nevertheless, the Internal Oversight Directorate insists on not seeing any violation in the rubble file that would require referring the officials responsible for it to investigation.

Aleppo Souks Company Begins Restoring Souk Hanano

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Recent weeks have seen the Aleppo Souks Company start rehabilitation and restoration works in East Aleppo’s Souk Hanano, beginning with the removal and relocation of rubbles from the site. The restoration processes include the complete reconstruction of the market, which is expected to be completed by the end of 2023, with the market set to open its doors at the beginning of 2024.

According to the Aleppo Chamber of Commerce, the souk will be designated after its restoration to support small and micro commercial and craft projects, with the aim of supporting production and the national economy, as well as providing job opportunities for people affected by the February 6 earthquake.

In 2008, the city council identified seven areas in Aleppo in which to establish popular markets. Then in 2009, the Aleppo Souks Company was established, in partnership between the Aleppo City Council and the Aleppo Chamber of Commerce. The company worked to equip and invest in plots owned by the city council in the ninth and 10th real estate districts in Aleppo city,, to establish two popular markets, among the seven predetermined locations, intended for leasing: Hanano and Dahret Awad Markets.

An official in the Aleppo City Council told The Syria Report that the Hanano Popular Market includes 409 shops covering an area of 3,646 square metres, established in 2009 on endowments properties and other properties expropriated by the city council. 

The Dahret Awad market includes 184 shops, established on an area of 2,000 square metres that were private agricultural lands expropriated by the city council. Owners of the expropriated properties in the two markets were compensated with long-term commercial lease contracts in the market. 

The council source added that, when construction of the two markets was completed in 2009, the shops were rented out with 20-year contracts, with the council and Chamber of Commerce sharing the collected rent payments via the Aleppo Souks Company. All the shops are rented under the old Tenancy Law No. 111 of 1952 and its amendments, which means tenants cannot be evicted as long as they continue to pay the rent. These properties are subject to compulsory extension, meaning the extension of the lease is obligatory regardless of the landlord’s wishes.

After 2011, the two markets came under opposition control and their shops closed due to the fighting. Between 2012 and 2016, when the Syrian opposition controlled the eastern districts of Aleppo, both markets were hit by the regime’s targeted aerial bombardments, leading to widespread destruction of shops, infrastructure, water, sanitation and electricity networks.

In 2016, the Aleppo Souks Company opened a new market, constructed in a similar manner near Aleppo’s branch of the Syrian Engineers Syndicate in western Aleppo, named Souk Al-Harir (“The Silk Market”). The Aleppo City Council provided some of the affected traders from Dahret Awad and Hanano with commercial shops in this new market, but there was little commercial success and business ventures there struggled. In 2019, the city council announced its intention to revitalise and reactivate the Aleppo Souks Company to alleviate the significant damages the markets in Aleppo had sustained during the war period.

The Syrian Ministry of Economy and Foreign Trade had previously ratified the bylaws of Aleppo Souks Company LLC in its Decision No. 126 of 2009. According to Official Gazette Issue No. 43, part 2 of 2016, the ministry later issued Decision No. 1698 in 2016, which approved amending the company’s bylaws in accordance with the Companies Law, issued under Legislative Decree No. 29 of 2011. According to this amendment, the company’s objective is to establish popular and commercial markets, malls, exhibitions, and commercial and tourist events with multiple aims:

  1. Tackling the issue of the affected shop owners, street vendors, and stallholders in Aleppo.
  2. Providing job opportunities and commercial spaces for citizens, including the families of war “martyrs” and those with special needs.
  3. Maintaining the aesthetics of the Old City and conducting environmental awareness campaigns.
  4. Stimulating commercial and tourist activity in Aleppo.
  5. Establishing temporary and permanent commercial markets and malls on plots of land, whether owned by the Aleppo City Council or other entities.

Notably, according to the 2016 amendment, the founders of the Aleppo Souks Company are the Aleppo City Council and the Aleppo Chamber of Commerce, both represented by their presidents. The company’s headquarters is in the Seven Seas area next to the Chamber of Industry in Aleppo city. The company’s capital is SYP 424,094,000, divided into 100 equal shares: 60 percent belong to the city council and 40 percent to the Chamber of Commerce. The company has the right to own real estate or fixed assets, while the city council provides the land for the souks and the Chamber of Commerce contributes to construction and equipment costs.

The company is managed by a four-member board of directors who are elected by the general assembly. Two members come from the city council and two from the Chamber of Commerce. The president of the Chamber of Commerce in Aleppo serves as the chair of the company’s board. 

Limited information is available about the company’s management, but Mohammad Saleh Al-Mallah, the then-president of the Chamber of Commerce, managed the company until 2011. He was succeeded by Ibrahim Fatouh until August 2016. Today, the company is chaired by Amer Al-Hamwi, president of the Aleppo Chamber of Commerce. According to The Syria Report’s sources, Hamwi is closely associated with Hussam Qaterji, who, despite being on the US and European sanctions list, is a member of the People’s Assembly, and the president of the international Qaterji Group. This group includes the Qaterji Real Estate Development and Investment Company.

Damascus Governorate Announces Auction for Al-Tadhamon and Qaboun Debris

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The Damascus governorate announced, for the third time, a sealed public auction in early September in order to recycle debris from buildings in the Al-Tadhamon district south of the capital, as well as from buildings and public facilities in the Qaboun Industrial zone to the northeast. 

According to the announcement, September 10 was the deadline for submitting bids to the Directorate of Correspondence in the governorate headquarters, located in Yousef Al-Azma Square. 

Though more than two weeks have passed since the deadline for bids, the governorate has yet to issue updates on the auction for either of the two regions. 

According to The Syria Report’s correspondent in Damascus, the area targeted by the auction in Al-Tadhamon is a residential neighbourhood that overlooks the Yarmouk Palestinian refugee camp. It served as a line of military defence during the period of opposition control in Al-Tadhamon from 2012 to 2015 and afterwards under Islamic State control from 2015 to 2018, when regime forces recaptured control in a destructive ground and aerial campaign. After regaining control, the governorate has demolished dozens of buildings in the area leading up to Palestine Street in the Yarmouk camp. 

Regime forces only allowed some displaced Al-Tadhamon residents, who had obtained security approval and whose homes were not destroyed, to return to the area. They then had to restore their homes at their own expense after paying bribes to checkpoint security personnel and members of the military in order to bring in the necessary construction supplies.

As for the Qaboun Industrial Zone, it is virtually destroyed and slated for demolition under Decree No. 237 issued on September 14, 2021. This decree stipulated establishing a zoned real estate area at the northern entrance of Damascus in line with Law No. 10 of 2018 that allowed creating such areas within the general zoning plan of an administrative unit. 

Decree No. 237 of 2021 is based on the Zoning Plan No. 104 of June 2019 for the Qaboun Industrial Zone, which included facilities for both the public and private sectors. However, from 2013 to 2018 the area became a frontline between regime and rebel forces, the latter of which were entrenched in the Qaboun residential area, as well as neighbouring Jobar and East Ghouta. Regime forces have not yet allowed anyone to return to the Qaboun Industrial Zone, including owners of factories and other industrial facilities. 

Though battles in these areas ended in 2018 with the forced displacement of opposition fighters, piles of debris remain. The Damascus governorate and its local municipalities justify this problem by saying there is a lack of funds to remove the rubble, as well as shortages of equipment, labour and fuel. Meanwhile, security forces prohibit the transport of debris to regulated dumping grounds without licences from the governorate. 

The month’s announcement of a sealed public auction for the two areas is not the first of its kind, and resembles previous announcements issued by other governorates aimed at getting private sector contractors to remove and transport rubble. The Ministry of Local Administration organises these auctions through the Damascus governorate and its municipalities, via administrative decisions made according to the unified contract system established in Law No. 51 of 2004. 

Notably, the most recent auction announcement makes no mention of Rubble Removal Law No. 3 of 2018. Amid its numerous shortcomings, the 2018 law gave real estate owners only a one-month period in which to prove their rights and ownership over their properties, as well as to take their private possessions and debris. In other words, the debris is only the property of the owners after they prove their rights within a narrow timeframe and according to legally valid documentation. This means that the issue of debris removal, despite its extreme sensitivity, is not approached from the standpoint of ownership rights but rather as merely a technical administrative issue. 

The Syria Report’s local correspondent asked an informed Damascus governorate source how such auctions are conducted. The source indicated that local NGOs, funded by international donors, usually serve as intermediaries between the governorate and the public sector institutions and companies, as well as private companies and building contractors, in order to implement such activities. These local NGOs can help fund the Damascus governorate directly in order to present such projects to potential applicants – or they may enter into direct contracts with the governorate to offer up the projects. In many cases, this chain of intermediaries does not reach the final state of contracting and launching work until there is a mutual understanding that includes paying bribes to municipal officials and security and military apparatuses that control the concerned areas. 

The Syria Report reviewed the technical conditions booklet that the Damascus governorate distributed to potential auction bidders, and which includes various required tasks and methods for implementation. According to the booklet, bidders must possess a jaw crusher (a machine used in demolition and rubble recycling) capable of crushing at least 100 tonnes of debris per hour. A jaw crusher can sort iron for recycling in furnaces, as well as sift other debris to extract aggregate and sand for reuse in other construction projects. 

According to the booklet, the Damascus governorate has estimated there to be 260,000 cubic metres of debris in need of recycling: 200,000 cubic metres in Al-Tadhamon, and 60,000 cubic metres in the Qaboun Industrial Zone. 

Contractors must ensure that the recycling output ratio is not less than 60 percent of the total amount of debris, including 80 percent aggregate, 20 percent sand and one kilogram of iron for every cubic metre of debris. By calculation, the quantity of recycled debris is about 156,000 cubic metres, including 124,000 cubic metres of aggregate, 31,000 cubic metres of sand and 156 tonnes of scrap iron.

Finally, the booklet also clarifies that contractors must ensure all the recycled products are clean and free of impurities, and that the governorate will supervise analysis of test samples. 

So far, there have been few applicants, as they must have special heavy machinery, The Syria Report’s correspondent explained. Only limited numbers of these machines are available from public sector construction companies and associations, particularly the Military Construction Establishment (MCE), which is affiliated with the Ministry of Defence. The MCE is run by Brig. Gen. Riyad Shalish, a cousin of Bashar al-Assad who has been on the EU’s sanctions list since 2011 for his role in suppressing peaceful protests. 

The MCE dominates the implementation of large infrastructure projects in Syria, especially those within the public sector, thanks to privileges granted by the government, including tax and customs exemptions, low labour costs and the ability to secure fuel – features severely lacking among private companies. These benefits have, time after time, allowed the MCE to offer cheaper offers than other bidders in order to win tenders. It is expected that the new sealed auctions in Tadhamon and Qaboun will also be awarded to the MCE, sources told The Syria Report. 

According to these sources, after the implementing agency has finished recycling the debris, the governorate will likely sell the scrap iron at a symbolic price to an iron smelting factory in the Adra Industrial City. The factory is owned by Damascus businessman Mohammad Hamsho, who is close to General Maher Al-Assad, the commander of the Fourth Division in the regime forces. Hamsho has been on the American and European sanctions lists since 2011. 

The iron smelting factory in turn produces structural reinforcement steel from the scrap and sells it in the local market at prices not less than the global price.

Even the process of transporting iron scrap from its extraction sites in Qaboun and Tadhamon to the smelting factory in Adra is carried out by companies exclusively licensed by the security office of the Fourth Division. Initially, approval must be obtained from the security office of the Fourth Division before any transport operation is carried out.

As for the sand and aggregate, it is believed that the Damascus governorate will use part of it in its projects such as the repair and rehabilitation of public roads, and will sell the remaining part to public and private sector construction companies and institutions.

Sources pointed out to The Syria Report that the owners of the demolished buildings in Qaboun and Tadhamon will not receive any compensation for their debris. The governorate considers this debris as its property, and that it has the right to dispose of it without consulting with the original owners. Moreover, owners of the destroyed properties must prove their previous ownership to be later allowed to rebuild them at their expense, and to buy the recycled iron and collected sand from the debris of their homes at the global market price.

Who Owns the Apartments that Spanish NGO Rescate Renovated in Aleppo’s Al-Shaar Neighbourhood?

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In March 2021, the Spanish NGO Rescate announced on Facebook that it was planning to rehabilitate damaged residential apartments in the Al-Shaar neighbourhood of east Aleppo and invited building contractors to submit tenders for the project. However, the organisation does not mention the owners of the damaged apartments or their situation in its technical, financial, and legal booklets on the project.

 

 

Sources in Al-Shaar told The Syria Report that the bid did not succeed due to a disagreement between the Aleppo City Council and the Syria Trust for Development (STD) on the one hand and Rescate on the other. The dispute was over the locations of the apartments slated for renovation, whether they were inhabited, and who owned them. Rescate re-launched the same project in August 2022 but made no mention of whether it resolved these disputes or if they were ongoing.

One source in Al-Shaar said that the renovation began in the last quarter of 2022 and that the owners handed over their apartments to the Aleppo City Council at the start of 2023. The source added that the renovations targeted apartments identified by the City Council and that Rescate was not free to choose the flats or distribution areas itself. According to the source, some of the renovated apartments belong to absentees and IDPs who had been forcibly displaced from Aleppo, while others are owned by City Council employees, security officers, and officials from the STD.

Al-Shaar was among the most heavily damaged neighbourhoods in the regime’s aerial and artillery bombardment of Aleppo between 2012 and 2016 when opposition forces controlled the city’s eastern half. The regime besieged thousands of residents in the district, especially in the small, high-density side streets, notably Sidd Al-Louz Street. The Russian air force used concussion bombs and vacuum missiles in its bombardment. Meanwhile, regime warplanes frequently dropped barrel bombs on residential buildings, most of which were five storeys high.

According to Rescate’s booklet of technical specifications and conditions published on Facebook, the apartment renovation project is titled “Rehabilitation of Damaged Apartments in Aleppo Neighbourhoods.” This project is a part of the humanitarian inter-sector Operational Plan for Collective Shelters in Aleppo (Eastern Aleppo city) as Rescate, as part of the Aleppo response plan, was assigned a part of the rehabilitation task in the city. Rescate said that this action meets the urgent needs of returnees’ women, men and children through shelter upgrade works in 150 apartments. The specification and technical conditions booklet did not mention who owns these apartments or whether this work is being done with their consent.

BoQ (price tender-bill of quantities) No. 20434 issued by Rescate, entitled “Rehabilitation of Damaged Apartments,” describes some of the works required to be completed by the project contractor. They include construction works such as clearing the project site to start work, removing debris, transporting it to official landfills, removing waste and rubble, and cleaning floors. The project also requires concrete works, finishes, electrical, water, and sewage work, maintenance work, and repairs to standard utilities of the buildings. The project’s total cost was listed as SYP 9,927,822 (around USD 1000 at the official rate and USD 900 at the black market rate).

Rescate’s specifications booklet clarifies that it appointed an engineer and created a supervision mechanism alongside its local partner in Aleppo (which was not named in the document). The local partner will oversee the project. The contract lasts 60 days, with an initial deposit of SYP 4 million and a final payment of 10 percent of the contract value.

The booklet also explained the conditions that the bidder must comply with, including having a recent registration certificate from a Syrian chamber of commerce or industry, a notarised certificate of their registration as a contractor in the Contractors’ Syndicate, a copy of the bidder’s criminal record proving they are not convicted of a felony or other heinous crime, and a statement from the bidder saying that they do not own or participate in any factory, institution, branch office or entity in Israel. One of the contractor’s obligations is to rely on some technical staff and suppliers from residents or those affected by the crisis in the area, whose names are proposed by the organisation and considered part of the work team.

The Syria Report could not identify the contractor who signed the contract with Rescate to complete the project. However, another source in Aleppo Governorate from the neighbourhood said that Al-Shaar is under the control of the Baqir Brigade militia, supported by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, based in the Al-Balloua neighbourhood of east Aleppo. The source added that most construction commitments in Al-Shaar, and East Aleppo are generally awarded to contractors with close ties with the militia.

Omar Al-Hassan, the political officer in the Baqir Brigade and a former member of the Syrian Parliament, is the intermediary for all construction work associated with the militia in east Aleppo, the source added. Hassan reportedly manages various construction crews and oversees factories producing construction blocks and white stones. He also owns warehouses for storing and trading cement and runs rubble recycling crushers in the Hilan and Handarat areas in Aleppo.

In 2019, Rescate tried to transport, crush, and sort rubble to extract materials to make cement bricks for construction in Aleppo. The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) funded the experiment with support from the STD and the Aleppo City Council. According to a statement by the head of Aleppo City Council to the official SANA news agency in March 2019, the experiment was successful, morphing into a project to produce 8,000 cement brick blocks.

The City Council president said at the time that the international entities funding the project ensured the provision of machinery and equipment, and ownership of the equipment would go to the Aleppo City Council after the project’s completion in December 2021.

Rescate also oversaw the preparation of the popular market of Deir Hafer in rural Aleppo in partnership with the STD, the Aleppo governorate, and the Deir Hafer City Council.

The Rubble After the Earthquake in Lattakia

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Since the February 6 earthquake, the rubble in Lattakia has been treated as a sensitive security issue and a taboo topic. The issue is a “red line” for some people. Everything mentioned on the topic relates to the contents of the collapsed homes, such as furnishings and other valuables that remained intact, rather than the rubble itself. 

Legally, the rubble belongs to the homeowners. However, owners who spoke with The Syria Report said they had yet to receive compensation for the debris of their homes and properties. They also said they did not have the opportunity to gather their valuables from beneath the rubble before it was removed. Most owners said they don’t know if they can still collect the rubble of their collapsed homes and are too afraid to inquire about the topic.

A source from Lattakia Governorate told The Syria Report that the government transported the earthquake rubble to a dump on the new Aleppo highway. He added that the rubble would be recycled and some of it used as gravel in public road paving projects. However, much of the rubble contains metals such as iron, copper, and aluminium, which “influential merchants” ‘will likely use unofficially, according to the source. He said that this aspect of the rubble is well-known, though the source refused to elaborate further. 

Law No. 3 of 2018, which addresses the removal of rubble from buildings after natural or unnatural disasters (or those subject to laws requiring their demolition), gave the owners of demolished real estate the right to the value of their rubble. However, the law left local administrative units responsible for deciding the value of such rubble after selling it in public auctions or recycling it and deducting the demolition and removal costs. Law No. 3 was not mentioned at any stage of the building damage and rubble removal underway in Lattakia post-earthquake. 

A source from the Lattakia City Council told The Syria Report that widespread fears around discussing the rubble are unrealistic. Instead, the source said, the problem lies with certain parties in local municipalities trying to cover up corruption and theft during rubble removal by spreading rumours that the topic was a sensitive security issue or a red line. According to this source, the municipal work crews removing the rubble committed major violations against private property. 

According to the source, the matter is not merely about “low-income workers having a right to benefit [from the rubble].” Still, it is more systematic and overseen by officials in the municipal councils. Often, the crews responsible for debris removal prevent locals from accompanying them during their work under the pretence of protecting them, while in reality, they are monopolising the debris sites, digging them for valuable items, and stealing them. What remains of the furniture is often unfit for use or recycling. Interestingly, according to the source, the residents have registered no official complaints against the municipal authorities for theft.

In contrast, an informed source from the Lattakia governorate council told The Syria Report that the executive office has been holding regular meetings to follow up on demolishing buildings at risk of collapse and removing their debris. The council has followed the necessary legal procedures during the demolition and deportation operations, including the need for the following documents:

  • Police unit control document;
  • Property owner’s consent to the demolition and removal; authenticated by the notary;
  • Decisions issued by the councils of administrative units to demolish the property based on reports from structural safety committees.

According to the source, each meeting reaffirmed the right of building owners to access the rubble of their homes and to be informed about the details of the demolition and deportation process all the way to the final dump site.

However, the debris removal process did not start until a month after the earthquake. This process included debris from completely collapsed buildings, as well as from severely damaged buildings at risk of collapse due to the quake, which was demolished by crews belonging to the Lattakia City Council and Lattakia governorate, with the help of crews from the Military Construction Establishment (MCE) branch in Lattakia governorate. The MCE is a contractor affiliated with the Ministry of Defence.

The process began with the collapsed building in Lattakia city’s Al-Sijn “prison” neighbourhood. One of the building’s residents said on Facebook that the municipality asked for SYP 70 million to remove the debris. One worker claimed that this payment was to cover the debris removal and sorting costs and allow the residents to take whatever they wanted from their properties. This caused widespread confusion about the responsibilities of the municipalities and the governorate in removing debris and maintaining private property. After that, the municipality suddenly removed the debris from the site without collecting any payment from the former residents or informing them of the removal timeline. This suspicious behaviour has led to rumours spreading amongst city residents that the debris does not belong to the homeowners.

In another instance, an old, dilapidated four-storey building in the Al-Ramal Al-Janoubi area of Lattakia collapsed due to the earthquake. Eyewitnesses recounted that the demolition and debris removal crews from the city council were quick to remove the building’s debris, and the workers did not hesitate to steal valuable items from amongst the rubble, including gold and jewellery. When one of the former residents asked about what happened, officials in the city council denied any thefts occurred.

In the city of Jableh, the bottom three storeys of a four-storey building collapsed. Although the fourth storey partially survived, it was tilted to a dangerous degree. The building owners managed to evacuate furnishings from the fourth storey with the help of a crew from the Jableh municipality. Due to their close relationship with a senior officer, the building owners could steer the crew’s work towards their benefit. They kept the debris for use in reconstructing the building.

Debris removal crews from Lattakia municipalities are still at work today, clearing rubble and reopening closed roads. Teams from the Civil Defence and the Lattakia Fire Brigade accompany these crews. However, violations continue to occur. A volunteer in an NGO was offered temporary work by a relative who works in a demolition and debris removal crew for one of the municipalities. The invitation indicated that the real compensation for the work is the potential to find valuable belongings among the debris. Within this atmosphere of chaos, personal relationships and nepotism, the young volunteer considered this routine and said he was grateful to his relative for providing him with beneficial work.

Meanwhile, a family in one rural Lattakia village could extract all the contents of their partially collapsed house through a crew affiliated with the village municipality and accompanied by members of one of the security agencies where a family member works. The family protected all the contents of their house, and they did not suffer from any theft or looting. They also knew the location of the debris disposal and visited it to retrieve some recyclable items.

Earthquake Committees in SIG-Controlled Areas

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Engineering committees that were formed by the Free Syrian Engineers’ Syndicate in northern Syria will work until the end of June to inspect and assess damages caused by the February 6 earthquake. The work comes as part of a comprehensive survey project for buildings and other facilities aimed at inspecting damages to private, public and governmental buildings as well as services in areas controlled by the Turkish-backed Syrian Interim Government (SIG). 

According to Khaled Al-Othman, head of the Free Syrian Engineers’ Syndicate branch in Aleppo, the survey project began on February 16, 2023, after the initial emergency response period to the earthquake had ended. The project includes 27 “comprehensive survey committees”, each consisting of three engineers, one of whom is a structural consulting engineer to serve as the team leader. 

As of May 29, 2023, the committees have inspected 33,087 buildings in the rural northern part of Aleppo governorate, covering 82 cities, towns, villages and settlements. Of those buildings, two percent were fully destroyed; three percent were severely damaged; 19 percent were moderately damaged; 38 percent were slightly damaged; and 38 percent were still safe. The committees also inspected 105 schools as of May 29, one of which was fully destroyed. Eight schools were severely damaged and 30 were moderately damaged. 

The syndicate also formed three public safety committees tasked with studying the results and reports of the comprehensive survey committees, though only for the buildings that were classified as severely damaged. Afterward, these public safety committees will reinspect the buildings and give their final engineering opinion on whether they should be demolished, removed and their rubble cleared away; or whether the buildings can remain and undergo reinforcement. The three public safety committees are distributed geographically between Azaz, Afrin and Jandares. 

As of May 29, these public safety committees had reassessed 609 of the 992 buildings classified as severely damaged. They transferred the results of these assessments to the demolition and removal committees of various local councils, which have the final say on whether to demolish the buildings. Those demolition committees are composed of three consulting engineers from the Free Syrian Engineers Syndicate, as well as a lawyer and two representatives from the relevant local council and public prosecution. 

So far the demolition and removal committee in Jandares has demolished 39 buildings, 25 of which were done as part of a partnership between local councils and NGOs, and 13 in partnership with the Syrian Civil Defence (also known as the White Helmets). Meanwhile, during the same period, the committee in Afrin demolished and removed three buildings. Some of these demolitions were full in scope and meant tearing down the entire structure, while others were only partial and preserved some parts of the buildings that were still intact and would not be impacted by the demolition of damaged sections — especially ground storeys and basements. 

Through consulting engineers who are members of these demolition and removal committees, the role of the Free Syrian Engineers Syndicate has been to suggest appropriate methods for demolition of each building. The syndicate is also meant to monitor the demolition process in order to maintain public safety and the safety of neighbouring buildings. 

Notably, the Free Syrian Lawyers Syndicate, which is active in opposition-held areas, did not play a key role in following up on the earthquake’s impacts to housing, land and property rights. Instead, the syndicate has been limited to its usual rights and judicial roles, without connection to the demolition of earthquake-damaged buildings, Syndicate Council Secretary Youssef Al-Hussein told The Syria Report. However, lawyers who are members of the syndicate have participated on an individual level in the demolition and removal committees by following up on the legal conditions for those impacted by the damage and helping them obtain documents confirming their rights.  

The Free Engineers Syndicate, meanwhile, is working on a set of standards and criteria for proper building reinforcement methods. They held an engineering conference at the Free University of Aleppo for this purpose on April 5 where participants presented and discussed various studies and research papers. The conference decided to adopt the Syrian Arab Code for the Design and Implementation of Reinforced Concrete Structures and its earthquakes appendix, as well as recommendations related to studies on reinforcement. Such studies are meant to be done separately for each building, and the responsibility for structural reinforcement lies with the local councils and at the expense of the property owners.

In this context, the Jandares local council issued a decision on May 31 stating that any cracked building that undergoes reinforcement without the council’s approval would be considered unlicensed construction. This decision was meant to ensure the application of proper standards for reinforcing cracked buildings, as well as the need for engineering committees to supervise such work. 

Meanwhile, Civil Defence teams have nearly finished removing the rubble of buildings damaged by the earthquake, in accordance with the comprehensive action plan announced on March 9. Deputy Civil Defence Director Mounir Al-Mustafa told The Syria Report that the organisation’s teams have almost finished removing the rubble, and so far have cleared away more than 400,000 square metres of debris from more than 120,000 residential communities. They have also cleared roads in 197 residential communities and done 540 projects to remove cracked walls or roofs in 99 communities. Finally, they have prepared and filled 303,519 square metres of land in SIG-controlled areas. with rubble left behind by the earthquake after recycling it.  

Some Displaced Residents Allowed to Return to New Neighbourhoods in Al-Hajar Al-Aswad

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Since early 2023, the Rural Damascus governorate has permitted displaced residents from the Al-Wahda and Al-Istiqlal neighbourhoods of Al-Hajar Al-Aswad to apply to return home. Previous returns in 2022 were limited to residents who had been displaced from the Tishreen and Al-Thawra neighbourhoods. 

Al-Hajar Al-Aswad is a city and the administrative centre of a subdistrict within the Rural Damascus governorate and borders the Yarmouk Palestinian refugee camp. About a half million people lived in Al-Hajar Al-Aswad before 2011, and at the time it was home to the largest population of displaced families who had fled the Golan Heights in the June 1967 war with Israel. Because of this dense concentration of residents from the Golan’s Quneitra governorate, the two governorates of Rural Damascus and Quneitra have overlapping authority in Al-Haja Al-Aswad. In any case, much of the city consists of informal settlements that are unzoned and unserved, and which became a destination for low-income Syrians moving to the greater Damascus area from other governorates. 

The city faced severe wartime destruction during the period of opposition control in 2012-2015, as well as during Islamic State control in 2015-2018. Regime forces regained control of Al-Hajar Al-Aswad in 2018 after a massive aerial and artillery bombardment campaign that destroyed entire neighbourhoods and forcibly displaced remaining residents. 

Until late 2022, only residents from the Tishreen and Al-Thawra neighbourhoods were allowed to return to the city, because those areas were the least affected by wartime damages. However, rubble remains scattered along the main road connecting those two neighbourhoods, as well as in many other areas, despite individual efforts by returnees to remove it at their own expense. In late 2022, a delegation of Al-Hajar Al-Aswad residents met with the Rural Damascus governor, Safwan Abu Saada, to complain about the low quality of public services in Tishreen and Al-Thawra. They demanded that the governorate take necessary steps to halt the looting and theft of their newly restored homes, as well as speed up rehabilitation of water, electricity and sewage networks and paving roads. Abu Saada responded that the governorate and relevant authorities were working hard to secure those necessities, and stressed that it was important for the local community to cooperate and participate in reconstruction. 

Meanwhile, Al-Wahda and Al-Istiqlal neighbourhoods, which before 2011 had a majority of Turkmen and Circassian residents from the Golan Heights, suffered worse damage from the war, which delayed returns. In late 2022, some residents who had been displaced from Al-Istiqlal took part in a volunteer campaign to clean the neighbourhood, including removing rubble from homes and some streets. They collected the debris in public squares, in coordination with the municipality. Still, at the time they were not allowed to return home, and so they left once again after they had completed the campaign. During a tour of Al-Hajar Al-Aswad in January 2023 Quneitra governor Mutaz Abu Al-Nasr Jamran said that he had ordered work crews from his governorate to clean Al-Wahda and Al-Istiqlal neighbourhoods. However, these crews did not start cleaning the main streets and some side streets of the two neighbourhoods until March 13 — and even then only spent four days on the job. 

Residents from Al-Jazira and Al-Alaf neighbourhoods are still prohibited from returning, as those areas were mostly destroyed due to a network of tunnels the Islamic State dug beneath them during its period of control. The two neighbourhoods also suffered intense bombing during the final military campaign in 2018 by regime and Russian forces. Khaled Khamis, head of Al-Hajar Al-Aswad City Council, posted to Facebook on March 11 that important steps had already been taken to rehabilitate the city’s infrastructure and services. He added that returns would later be allowed to Al-Jazira neighbourhood, but only after the governorate removed buildings there at risk of collapse. 

Notably, the Quneitra governorate is the one that always begins removing the rubble from neighbourhoods where the Rural Damascus has allowed residents to return. After such work begins, the Quneitra governorate then withdraws its work crews and machinery without explanation and Rural Damascus governorate work crews take over the job. This is what happened in Al-Thawra and Tishreen neighbourhoods in early 2022 — at the time, the Quneitra governorate and Golan notables obtained approval for residents to return. It started removing rubble and then left for the Rural Damascus governorate to take over.

Residents have criticised this unusual behaviour by the Quneitra governorate, which has yet to rehabilitate any of its centres or schools in Al-Hajar Al-Aswad. A source familiar with the governorate council’s operations told The Syria Report that this is due to funding issues. While the Rural Damascus governorate often receives aid from local and international NGOs for early recovery project contracts it undertook in the city, the Quneitra governorate has been unable to receive any of this assistance. Instead, it relies solely on its own budget and whatever it can collect in accordance with the Financial Law of Administrative Units. 

Syrian authorities are seeking out international organisations to obtain funding for early recovery projects. These include rehabilitation of schools, water, electricity and sewage networks and rubble removal. It appears that Syrian authorities have set such rehabilitation as a precondition for return of displaced residents to their hometowns. 

In addition to the Syrian Arab Red Crescent (SARC), currently a team from the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Antioch and All the East is helping rehabilitate Al-Hajar Al-Aswad with help from Norwegian Church Aid, which in March restored the city’s medical centre before handing it over to the Rural Damascus Directorate of Health. The French NGO Première Urgence Internationale also rehabilitated the city’s third mixed-gender school alongside the Rural Damascus governorate and the Ministry of Education. 

The Al-Hajar Al-Aswad City Council head said in March 2023 that there had been 3,100 applications to return to the city, of which 2,700 were approved. He added that around 350 homes had been restored, 140 of them with assistance from SARC. Finally, he vowed to restore the city’s drinking water network soon. Still, a local correspondent for The Syria Report said that returns to the city were still low, and that only about 1,000 people (200 families) had returned to settle there. Though many displaced residents return to their homes sporadically to check on their homes, most choose not to resettle in the area, as it still lacks basic services such as water and electricity. 

According to the correspondent, returnees may now undergo security checks at the municipal office in the district branch of the Military Security detachment on Al-Thalatheen Street in neighbouring Yarmouk before they enter Al-Hajar Al-Aswad. Al-Thalatheen Street is the main entryway into the city. The procedures for obtaining security approval have not changed, and those wishing to return must submit an application to Al-Hajar Al-Aswad municipality, which then sends their files to the district branch. There, the applications undergo study before either approval or rejection. Those who have lost their property ownership documents have still not been able to obtain security approval, despite having followed the municipality’s instructions: getting a record from the police station, obtaining an electricity or water payment receipt, and providing a paper from their neighbourhood mukhtar in which two witnesses from the area testify that the applicant is a local property owner. 

One displaced man told The Syria Report that he visits Al-Hajar Al-Aswad every month to check on his house. Each time, he finds that conditions have worsened due to looting, especially in the Al-Alaf and Al-Jazira neighourhoods. Looters take anything that can be sold or recycled, including the city’s newly installed lighting poles. On top of that, the checkpoint at the entrance to the city imposes fees on residents hoping to bring in furniture for their homes.

Yarmouk Camp: Civil Initiatives for Rubble Removal

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In March, activists, local leaders and NGOs launched an initiative to facilitate the return of residents to the Yarmouk Palestinian refugee camp in Damascus. Their campaign included removing rubble from some streets, albeit without a legal framework to regulate it and without any simultaneous effort to document who owns the debris.

Damascus Governor Muhammad Kreishati visited Yarmouk on March 11 to launch a campaign called Hand in Hand, meant to help revitalise the camp, in partnership with the Initiative of the Civil Society body, which includes a group of local leaders, NGOs, and civil associations and relief groups active in the camp. According to officials in charge, the goal of the Initiative is to coordinate efforts between civil society and the Damascus governorate to rehabilitate infrastructure in Yarmouk. 

As part of the Hand in Hand campaign, various civil and relief associations in the camp helped install solar-powered street lighting, set drinking water tanks, planted ornamental trees and distributed free bread to residents, among other tasks. The campaign aims to clean the main street of Yarmouk camp and Loubia and Palestine streets, maintain and construct road medians and sidewalks, and fill in holes. Other initiatives are planned to follow this one, focused on rebuilding the camp and allowing residents to return. Officials in charge did not disclose further details on the duration of the campaigns or funding.

Mr Kreishati said 3,000 civil society volunteers took part in the Hand in Hand campaign, in addition to governorate work crews. The campaign cleared rubble from a large portion of the nearby streets and between buildings. He added that the governorate made significant progress in providing water and sewage services to all the main streets in the camp and was currently coordinating with Damascus’s Directorate of Electricity to activate two electrical substations to meet the needs of the 1,800 families in Yarmouk.

A well-informed source told The Syria Report that the Damascus governorate is the entity that oversees rubble removal. Meanwhile, NGOs and civil and relief organisations provide work crews and secure financial liquidity to cover operating costs. One of the most prominent organisations involved in this work has been the Al-Quds Charitable Association, which brought in 36-member work crews along with three vehicles: a medium-sized truck and two small trucks meant to assist with ten days of rubble removal. The association later said on its Facebook account that it would keep working until it cleared the entire camp of rubble.

Al-Quds Charitable Association was established in 2011. Most of its members were part of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad movement. The association’s work receives official media coverage. The Ministry of Local Administration has also honoured its members several times. It has been responsible for the most significant activities related to rubble removal, street lighting and the provision of water tanks in the camp.

According to the well-informed source, most NGOs working in Yarmouk are affiliated with pro-regime Palestinian factions. Despite their aid efforts in the camp, their primary focus is collecting donations to fund these factions. This explains the different names of these NGOs and the existence of multiple similar NGOs affiliated with a single faction.

In any case, camp residents have complained about the slow and irregular pace of debris removal. In several instances, debris was moved from one site to another within the camp without being taken away, such as in the Waseem Project neighbourhood. Moreover, roads remain blocked between the camp and adjacent areas due to debris and earthen berms, including Al-Tadhamon, Yalda, and Al-Hajar Al-Aswad. Homes under restoration and repair work have also been targeted by theft, including the removal of iron rebar from ceilings and walls. Such thefts are especially rampant in the March 8th neighbourhood and some areas between Yarmouk and Al-Hajar Al-Aswad. 

The Action Group for Palestinians of Syria reported on April 10 that the Damascus governorate changed various signage and symbols in Yarmouk after finishing restoration and rehabilitation work at the camp’s entrance. This included removing Palestinian flags and symbols from the main entrance, replacing the word “camp” with “street” and using the term Yarmouk area instead of Yarmouk camp. Meanwhile, the pro-opposition news site Saut Al-Asima reported on March 16 that residents wishing to return to Yarmouk and Al-Hajar Al-Aswad would no longer be required to visit the Palestine Branch of Military Security or the National Security Office to obtain approval. Instead, they must submit a written request to a recently established military security detachment located on Yarmouk’s Thalatheen Street.

Jandares Two Months on from the Earthquake

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Over two months after the February 06 earthquake, the town of Jandares still suffers the impacts of the damage. The town is located in the Afrin region of the Aleppo governorate which is under the control of the Syrian Interim Government (SIG).

The quake virtually destroyed Jandares. It killed around 800 residents, destroyed 278 buildings, and damaged 1,100 buildings. The owners of these destroyed and damaged homes still live across four main shelter centres near the town and in small camps inside Jandares. 

Most original residents of Jandares are Kurds, and in 2012 the majority-Kurdish People’s Protection Units took control of the town. Then in 2018, Turkish-backed opposition factions seized Jandares in Operation Olive Branch, displacing many original residents. Meanwhile, many people forcibly displaced by regime forces from other parts of Syria formerly controlled by the opposition, namely Rural Damascus, Homs, and Hama, arrived and settled in Jandares. According to local council estimates, the town’s population in 2022 was around 115,000 people. 

Immediately after the earthquake, the Aleppo branch of the Free Syrian Engineers’ Syndicate formed comprehensive survey committees (Earthquake Damage Assessment Committees) to conduct field surveys on the 1,100 affected buildings in Jandares. In mid-March, these committees completed their work. They classified the buildings into three categories according to their level of damage: slight, moderate and severe. There were 45 severely damaged buildings. 

Afterwards, Jandares Local Council requested a central public safety committee, consisting of nine syndicate engineers, to inspect the severely damaged buildings and issue a final recommendation for either their removal or reinforcement. The committee decided to completely demolish most of these 45 buildings or demolish parts of them and reinforce the remaining sections.

It should be noted that the Engineers’ Syndicate signed a memorandum of understanding on February 19, 2023, with the non-governmental organisation Mercy Without Limits, which was founded in 2012 and licensed in Turkey. According to the memorandum, the organisation provides equipment, pays for building inspections, covers transportation costs and compensates the engineers.

The survey committees and the Central Safety Committee handed their results to the local council, which is now responsible for implementation. The local council has tasked its demolition and removal committee with issuing a final decision regarding the damaged buildings. Then, on April 06, the local council published a list of ten damaged buildings to destroy and gave their owners a three-day deadline to object. It is not yet clear what the legal mechanisms are in case any of the building owners object. Still, at the time of writing, the council has yet to receive any objections. Therefore, after the three-day deadline ends, the demolition and removal committee will knock down those buildings and remove their rubble. 

In the next stage, the Central Safety Committee will identify moderately damaged buildings requiring reinforcement. It may then decide to reinforce or demolish some buildings, as some moderate-risk buildings have suffered further damage with the earthquake aftershocks.

Samir Bouidani, head of the Central Safety Committee in the Aleppo branch of the Free Syrian Engineers’ Syndicate, explained to The Syria Report some of the engineering standards used to determine the safety of local buildings. For example, the committee removed any building that showed a visible slant, even with no cracks. And any decision to reinforce a building depends on the cost not exceeding 50 percent of the cost of its concrete structure. Here, costs are the deciding factor.

According to Mr Bouidani, determining which reinforcement method to use is not the Central Safety Committee’s job, as each building requires its own specialised engineering study. Therefore, the Engineers’ Syndicate, in coordination with the local council and with the consent of the building owners, refer the matter to private engineering offices licensed. It is still unclear whether any governmental or non-governmental organisations will contribute or fund such reinforcement and restoration for buildings that require this work before being inhabited again.

On the other hand, individual restoration projects on slightly damaged houses have taken place in the town, albeit out of the owners’ pockets. Such work includes rebuilding walls using blocks and cement, plastering, repairing windows, doors, and external walls and repairing inner courtyards. This restoration work often does not include any metal or reinforced concrete for columns and beams. These projects pose risks, including masking the harmful effects of the earthquake on the building’s structural mass, which could mean dangers to these buildings in the future.

As for removing the debris, work is still unorganised as there is no legal mechanism to protect the rights of homeowners’ rubble. NGOs are still working to remove debris from Jandares in cooperation with the local council and the Syrian Civil Defence, also known as the White Helmets. On April 04, the Syrian NGO Takaful Al-Sham, registered in Turkey since 2013, launched the Balsam Project to remove debris and rehabilitate several markets and roads within Jandares, according to the “cash for work” principle. However, like other projects launched by non-governmental organisations, Balsam did not clarify that the debris is the last evidence of the owners’ ownership of their collapsed homes or the fate of the original properties and possessions upon which they were built.

Explained: Syrian Law and HLP Rights in Natural Disasters

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No law in Syria’s legislative system specifically addresses real estate damaged by natural disasters. Article 24 of the Syrian Constitution, issued as part of Decree No. 94 of 2012, says that the state, alongside the society, bears the burdens resulting from such disasters, without any indication of which laws deal with such events. 

Although some laws mention issues related to real estate damaged by natural disasters, they do not address housing, land, and property rights. In all these cases, the few laws that exist for natural disasters distinguish between licensed buildings and buildings built without construction permits, as well as between informal settlements and zoned areas. 

Syrian Civil Code

Article 817 of Syrian Civil Code No. 84 of 1949 states that the owners may form a union where the real estate is divided into separate apartments or storeys. Under Article 823, if the building is destroyed by a fire or other means, the partners in this union must abide by what the union decides by the majority. 

If the union decides to rebuild, then compensation money due for the damages is allocated. In practice, this means that for licensed buildings in a zoned area, should most owners want to rebuild, then reconstruction is carried out at their expense. Each owner contributes according to their share in the building. The union may also employ compensation money or assistance the state provides for reconstruction. Afterwards, the building is returned to its owners in the same condition it was in beforehand. 

In practice, however, residential building unions like the ones mentioned above have yet to be formed in Syria. Instead, there is Law on Building Occupants’ Organisations and their Administrative Committees No. 55 of 2022, issued to regulate and maintain the commonly used portions of residential buildings and thus enable occupants to settle disputes arising from their use. This law is non-binding, and many buildings do not have such committees. 

If the building cannot be reconstructed, the shareowners may terminate their common ownership of the property and divide it up. First, they must correct the legal property description of the real estate and list it as merely a plot of land slated for construction. In other words, subdivided ownership of the building ceases to exist, and each owner reverts to joint owners of the land itself. In such cases, the owners are entitled to the rubble of their former homes and any monetary compensation or aid as decided by the state.

Law No. 15 of 2008

In cases where Real Estate Development and Investment Law No. 15 of 2008 is applied to an area damaged by a natural disaster, the real estate developer must secure alternative housing for occupants or pay an agreed-upon cash allowance. Recipients must pay for any alternative accommodation they are allocated. This law may include real estate within and outside an existing zoning plan. It also stipulates allocating and selling real estate residential shares within the zoned real estate area to occupants of expropriated homes after the completion of construction work. 

Under Article 14 of this law, real estate development and investment projects aimed at sheltering people impacted by natural disasters are a top priority among other projects.

Law No. 33 of 2008 

For real estate destroyed by natural disasters, Syria’s executive authority may apply Law No. 33 of 2008, which addresses establishing ownership for built properties and parts of unbuilt properties in informal settlements or areas with mass unlicensed construction. This is although the law itself does not mention natural disasters. 

To apply Law No. 33 to real estate destroyed by natural disasters, the properties must have undergone delimitation and census, be recorded in the Land Registry and be connected within one area. According to the law’s executive instructions, the buildings on these properties must also constitute at least 50 percent of the properties’ surface areas. 

This law does not stipulate granting alternative housing or compensation for people impacted by natural disasters, as its scope is limited to simply establishing ownership of properties. Law No. 33 may not apply to a damaged area if another zoning, urbanisation, real estate development or investment law is in force there.

Legislative Decree No. 40 of 2012 

Legislative Decree No. 40 of 2012, which focuses on unlicensed construction, states that if a property within a zoned area built in violation of the building permit has been destroyed, it becomes the owners’ common property. Those owners may request a renewed construction permit per the building codes in place. 

Decree No. 40 does not entitle owners of unlicensed buildings to any rights should their properties collapse. Instead, Article 2 of the law states that if an unlicensed facility is incapable of standing (according to an assessment by that governorate’s public safety committee) then whoever is found responsible should be sentenced to a year to three years imprisonment. Should the building’s collapse cause the death of one or more persons, the penalty increases to at least ten years of hard labour and three times the usual fine. 

Law No. 23 of 2015

Chapter two on Zoning and Urbanisation Law No. 23/2015 can apply to areas impacted by natural disasters such as earthquakes or floods. However, the law leaves it up to the local administrative units in damaged areas to apply zoning measures according to prior zoning plans when implementing approved plans, meaning they are not obliged to rezone areas impacted by natural disasters.

Law No. 23 does allow exemptions from fees and any other local costs and sums related to rebuilding destroyed real estate. At the same time, the law entitles administrative units to deduct parts of these damaged areas free of charge and expropriate areas containing mass unlicensed construction that happen to be located within approved zoning plans. 

The law calls for creating compulsory land readjustment committees tasked with giving rights holders their due shares, either within or near the location of their original property. Rights holders may also be granted plots of land to be commonly owned between them, provided each owner’s share is identified. However, these measures apply only to properties that have been licensed. Law No. 23 states that owners have rights only over the rubble for unlicensed properties within zoned areas or state-owned lands. Administrative entities may choose to sell alternative housing to the owners of unlicensed properties if there is a surplus.  

Law No. 10 of 2018

Law No. 10 of 2018 stipulates that one or more zoned real estate areas may be established within the zoning plans of an administrative unit and was meant to complement Legislative Decree No. 66 of 2012. The 2018 law may be applied only to areas containing unlicensed construction and informal housing destroyed by natural disasters, as it does not stipulate any application in already licensed buildings in zoned areas. 

Article 43 of Law No. 10 states that owners of unlicensed construction only have the right to the rubble of their buildings and the possibility of being allocated alternative housing by the local administrative unit if there is a surplus. However, they must pay for such housing. They may also receive two years of rent allowance. 

Law No. 3 of 2018

Finally, Law No. 3 of 2018, which focuses on removing the rubble of damaged buildings, was issued in response to the destruction Syria faced due to the war. However, the law also includes measures for removing the rubble of buildings destroyed by natural causes such as earthquakes. In either case, it is up to the relevant governor, based on proposals by local administrative units, to determine which damaged areas will undergo rubble removal. 

Law No. 3 does not differentiate between the rubble of buildings in zoned vs unzoned areas. It also does not stipulate what is meant to happen to lands where debris has been removed or when facilities at risk of collapse have been demolished. The law does not clarify whether owners of these properties may construct new buildings, whether they must be compensated or even if the land is expropriated, whether allowance payments or alternative housing must be given to the owner. However, Law No. 3 clearly states that property owners have ownership rights over the rubble of their buildings. 

This law is not limited to only removing building rubble but also includes the possibility of administrative units demolishing damaged buildings and removing debris. 

Removing Rubble in Earthquake-Affected Opposition Areas

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NGOs active in areas controlled by the Syrian Salvation Government (SSG) in the Idlib governorate and the Syrian Interim Government (SIG) in the Aleppo governorate have recently launched projects to remove rubble left behind after the earthquake. 

Most of these projects have documented the ownership of the debris and the rights of those owners to any possessions buried underneath. Owners also have the right to recycle their rubble.

However, these initiatives have not clearly addressed the HLP rights of owners of collapsed buildings and have all failed to explain that the rubble is a final form of ownership proof for these homes. They also need to clarify what will happen to the original properties and the land on which they were built. 

So far, the most comprehensive rubble removal plan was announced by the Syria Civil Defence, more commonly known as the White Helmets, on March 9. The plan aimed to provide rapid relief for communities damaged by the February 06 earthquake. It targets the following locations, which were the communities that suffered the worst housing damage: Harem, Salqin, Janderes, Al-Atarib, Al-Dana, Jisr Al-Shughour, Darkoush, Akhtrein, and Souran. Civil Defence teams plan to go to these areas to allocate human resources and equipment to remove the rubble.

 The process is expected to take three to four months, according to a Civil Defence source who spoke with The Syria Report. This timeline depends on the extent to which local councils can obtain agreement for the removal of rubble from owners of collapsed buildings. These local councils will check property claims and verify them with existing official documents issued by real estate authorities and lease contracts registered with local councils and mukhtars. Local council engineering and technical teams will work alongside the Civil Defence to document rubble removal using official records. 

The source explained that the rubble sorting process would initially occur at the sites of the collapsed buildings and that any possessions still under the rubble would be handed over to their owners. Then the debris will be transported to special collection sites designated for each damaged area according to existing regulations. All of this will be documented by Civil Defence teams. 

Afterwards, the rubble will be taken outside the cities and towns to locations not yet determined for final disposal and recycling. Local councils will coordinate during this step to determine where the materials can be reused, such as restoring roads, building public squares, etc. Engineering authorities from the SSG and SIG and the Engineers’ Syndicate will also discuss the best mechanism for recycling from an economic and environmental standpoint. 

The plan also calls for demolishing buildings at risk of collapse after it has been verified that they cannot be restored, according to engineering reports issued by specialised damage assessment committees and with the approval of relevant local councils and property owners. 

In SSG-controlled areas, 25 engineering committees affiliated with the authority’s Ministry of Local Administration and Services are still working to inspect damaged properties. As of March 06, these committees have inspected 2,603 homes. Of those, 616 were deemed structurally sound, 962 needed restoration work, 546 needed foundational reinforcement and evacuation, 261 needed total demolition, and another 211 required partial demolition. 

Jandares

The town of Jandares is located in the Afrin region of rural northwestern Aleppo governorate and is under the control of the Turkish-backed SIG. It suffered near-total damage in the February 6 earthquake. A total of 278 buildings there entirely collapsed, according to the latest statistics from the Jandares Local Council, issued on February 24. Another 1,100 buildings partially collapsed or had cracks. The earthquake killed around 800 town residents. 

Some property owners have requested that the Jandares Local Council transport the rubble of their homes – at their initiative and expense – to private lands they own in other locations. There, they hope to reuse the debris to build new homes, pitch tents, or other means. 

Subsequently, the local council gave owners and tenants of collapsed buildings until March 10 to submit requests to transport the rubble. After March 10, all remaining debris would be removed, whether registered or not.

Rubble removal began in the town’s Al-Bazar and Al-Zeytoun neighbourhoods on March 12 and is expected to take 100 days to be completed for the entirety of Jandares with coordination between the local council and the Civil Defence. The debris has been transported to spots near the Afrin River and some public roads so that it can be used to widen them. 

A source from the Jandares Local Council told The Syria Report that rubble removal and transport to those locations started haphazardly before the council granted its current approval. 

Removing the rubble takes place with a security officer from one of the Jandares opposition factions present, in addition to the civil police. This is meant to help verify ownership of the rubble and document its removal. While it is being removed, policemen and security officers record the possessions found in the debris and transport them to a police station to hand over to the owners. 

Meanwhile, the NGO Sard has also announced a project to remove rubble from Jandares and Sarmada as part of an early recovery programme. Sard, founded in 2013, is headquartered in the Turkish city of Mersin and registered in Turkey. It carries out UN- and donor-funded early recovery and livelihood projects. 

According to the organisation, Sard’s project aims to clear roads inside Jandares and Sarmada to ease safe access, restore everyday life, and provide short-term job opportunities. It also includes forming a local community empowerment committee for coordination between quake-affected residents and damage assessment committees concerning rubble removal.

 

Armanaz in Idlib after the Earthquake

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The local council in the Idlib governorate city of Armanaz has called on residents to submit requests to inspect their homes in earthquake-damaged buildings so that the council could send earthquake damage assessment committees to check on the houses. According to The Syria Report correspondent, 650 such requests were submitted. 

These committees were formed in cooperation with the Engineers’ Syndicate in Idlib, the Directorate of Technical Services and the Ministry of Local Administration, part of the Syrian Salvation Government (SSG) run by the Hay’at Tahrir Al-Sham hardline Islamist group. 

The destruction in Armanaz extended across the newly-built parts of the city and the old city centre, composed of stone houses dating back to various historical periods. The oldest ones contain Byzantine architectural elements. 

According to the damage assessment committees and the Armanaz local council, 11 multi-storey buildings in the city have fully collapsed, containing a total of 135 apartments. Another 36 old homes also fully collapsed. Three multi-storey buildings containing 26 apartments and 60 old houses became at risk of collapse and required demolition. Finally, 26 multi-storey buildings and 60 old houses are cracked, which now require evacuation and restoration work. 

The old city centre: A special case

Destruction from the February 6 quake impacted several neighbourhoods of old Armanaz: Al-Talla, Al-Jabbana, Al-Khodhor, Al-Kharajia, Al-Wadi and Al-Karasi, all of which date back to more than 200 years ago. Three buildings in Al-Jabbana collapsed fully, alongside one home in Al-Kharajia. Meanwhile, Al-Talla, composed of 162 old houses, was the most heavily damaged neighbourhood in the old city, with 35 homes that fully collapsed. Another 45 homes in the area cracked, are now uninhabitable, and cannot be restored. 

The layout of these old houses helped to limit the number of victims, as most of them contained an inner courtyard or garden where residents sought refuge during the earthquake. Al-Talla neighbourhood consists of old Arab-style stone houses with wooden or earthen roofs, though some have concrete roofs. The walls are constructed with what is known as “dak” stone, each about a metre thick and composed of small- and medium-sized stones and earth. 

The alleyways in the old city centre are too narrow for heavy machinery to enter and remove the rubble. The architecture of the old houses there, which consist of arches and vaults, and the construction materials pose challenges to restoring them, some of which are historically valuable. 

Removing collapsed or at-risk houses is also difficult, as many homes are attached and have shared walls. In addition, most residents of these neighbourhoods have limited income and may be unable to afford restoration work or rubble removal. Engineers have warned that leaving these old houses as they are and allowing further exposure to rain and other weather conditions will only exacerbate their disrepair. 

Some engineers have suggested removing several neighbourhoods altogether, which other engineers have rejected. In the meantime, many residents cling to their houses. Local activists say the old neighbourhoods contain important historical sites, including houses, mosques and vaults that date back to various eras and represent the heritage of Armanaz. Some activists have launched a call for relief efforts to help restore the old city centre. 

Some engineers have also suggested implementing the old zoning plans for Armanaz from the 1980s and 1990s, which include constructing wide streets in some old neighbourhoods of the city not classified as historic and compensating residents whose homes would be in the way of those streets. 

Removing the earthquake rubble

Work is ongoing to remove the earthquake rubble in Armanaz. The streets have already been cleared, and debris has been transported to a designated dumping spot. The privately owned Green Energy company, which brings electricity from Turkey and supplies it to Idlib, has repaired electrical lines and replaced broken poles. The local water unit is also restoring the water network and sealing off water flow to demolished buildings to prevent leakage. 

The International Humanitarian Relief Association (IYD), a Turkish NGO, has worked alongside the Syria Civil Defense (known as the White Helmets) to remove rubble from Armanaz and neighbouring Malas and Kafr Takharim and deposit it in designated spots. The IYD also employed around 50 workers to break down the rubble and extract iron and other valuable materials such as aluminium and wood. These were then sold, and the proceeds were given to the owners of those fallen buildings. 

But as for restoring the cracked buildings and homes that can be restored, there still has not been any funding. The SSG-run Ministry of Local Administration issued instructions for repairing such buildings and homes, which must be done under the supervision of the Engineers’ Syndicate. Owners of damaged houses are the ones who must bear the costs of restoration work, while for multi-storey apartment buildings, the residents all share the costs.  

Civil housing initiatives

Armanaz has led the way in social and civil initiatives and has prior experience in such work. In 2017, intense regime airstrikes damaged 127 houses in the city, 70 of which were destroyed, killing 56 people. Syrian expatriates from Armanaz donated to those impacted by the destruction and helped them restore their homes. A similar effort occurred after the February 6 earthquake, with expatriates from the city contributing to residents of damaged homes and victims’ families. 

Armanaz residents, in recent days, also launched the “Seed of Goodness” project to direct aid coming in from donors, especially from expatriates. The project also unifies relief efforts for a permanent housing shelter for earthquake-impacted residents, especially the city’s lowest-income families. In its first stage, the project aims to construct 20 apartments. Volunteers also hope to license a housing association to manage the construction work, which is moving quickly as land for the project has already been purchased, and building and street plans are put in place.

Looters Invade Yarmouk Camp

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Scavenging for and recycling rubble appears to have become a booming trade for looting crews in damaged areas, where security forces have restricted access from most residents hoping to return home. This is especially the case in Damascus’ Yarmouk Palestinian refugee camp. 

According to The Syria Report’s local correspondent, Deir Yassine, Al-Aroubeh and 15th Street are the areas of the camp most impacted by the looting. Crews of fewer than ten workers each carry out the looting with light machinery, picking apart roofs and columns to extract iron. These teams enter the camp regularly via checkpoints operated by Military Security, one of the country’s four main security services, on Al-Thalatheen Street. They are allowed access through security permissions issued by the Fourth Division that grant them the freedom to enter and exit the camp. 

Most of these workers are day labourers employed by scrap traders. They collect scrap taken from the rubble in different parts of the camp, especially Deir Yassine and 15th Street, similar to the looting process in neighbouring Al-Hajar Al-Aswad, a city just outside Damascus. Afterwards, traders take the scrap out of the camp and pass through the security checkpoints to iron smelting factories in Rural Damascus. 

In general, the looting crews divide the camp amongst themselves, so each crew gets a sector of buildings. Aside from these professional work crews, groups of less organised, self-employed workers also hunt for scrap, gather iron, and loot homes. These workers pay bribes to personnel at the security checkpoints that allow them to enter the camp. They often attack residents wishing to check on their properties, hitting them with rocks and sticks to scare them from returning. 

Eyewitnesses told The Syria Report that the looting, demolitions and iron extractions also target undamaged and habitable buildings. Sometimes the looting teams demolish columns on ground storeys, causing the buildings to collapse and making it easier to extract iron from the rubble. These demolitions have killed some looters in recent years in the Jobar neighbourhood of Damascus and Al-Hajar Al-Aswad. 

The demotions have also, at times, affected buildings in the camp that had already been restored from wartime damage. Abu Ahmad, a Yarmouk resident, told The Syria Report that he had been working to regain his apartment on the second storey of a building near Al-Madares Street to move back home. However, he recently found that the stairwell of his building had been completely demolished and the iron extracted from it, making it difficult to reach the second storey. 

Salma, another resident, said she had obtained approval to return to her house in Yarmouk, which was still habitable. She spent her family’s savings rehabilitating the home and installing windows and doors, only to find that looters had dismantled and stolen everything. 

The looting comes amid an unclear announcement by the Damascus governor in January calling on residents and homeowners to visit the Yarmouk Services Department to remove their collapsed homes and to demolish their homes if they are at risk of total or partial collapse. The announcement did not clarify what exactly was demanded of these residents, i.e. whether they would be responsible for removing the homes themselves or whether the Yarmouk Services Department would undertake the task. 

Governorate Orders Property Owners in Yarmouk Camp to Remove Damaged Damascus Buildings

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On January 23, the Damascus governor announced new procedures for buildings in the Yarmouk Palestinian refugee camp that have fallen or are at risk of either partial or total collapse. However, the announcement was unclear and ambiguous and appeared to have no legal basis. 

The announcement, which was issued in the state-owned Al-Baath Newspaper, included a request by the Damascus governor for residents and property owners in Yarmouk to “visit the Yarmouk Services Department to remove their collapsed buildings or demolish buildings at risk of total or partial collapse. An announcement will be made in the Official Gazette and affiliated websites for one month, after which the buildings will be removed, and their owners charged the costs of removal.” It is unclear what is required of the residents, i.e. whether they must remove their buildings themselves, or if the Yarmouk Services Department will do so.

The Yarmouk Services Department was established by Damascus Governor’s Decree No. 61 of 2018 to replace the semi-independent Yarmouk Camp Local Committee that had administered the camp since 1964. The new services department operates directly under the Damascus governorate and has its headquarters in the same building once occupied by the now-defunct local committee on Palestine Street.

The governor’s announcement was unclear in several ways. First, regarding the one-month deadline, it was unclear whether that one month was the period the announcement would appear in the Official Gazette and news websites, the deadline for property owners to visit the services department, or the deadline for demolishing and removing the buildings.

Second, the announcement had no legal basis in Law No. 3 of 2018, which concerns removing the rubble of damaged buildings and buildings subject to laws requiring demolition. Law No. 3 grants the governor the power to determine real estate zones and damaged buildings that must be removed while giving property owners one month to prove their rights to ownership of the rubble. 

Law No. 3 also requires the governor to form a committee to assess the damaged buildings and identify the owners. The committee has five members, including a real estate judge who heads it, the Land Registry’s Surveying Department president, a real estate expert, a representative from the Directorate of Cadastral Affairs, and a representative from the local residents. The committee is tasked with determining the condition of the buildings and the extent of damage and structural integrity, as well as recommending full, partial, or no demolition.

Although Law No. 3 is already very problematic and poses risks to housing, land, and property rights, local administrative units tend to more often address issues related to rubble, fallen buildings, or buildings at risk of collapse, according to administrative decisions and circulars they have issued in the past. This process is also extremely problematic, as it allows administrative units, especially those operating in informal settlements, to demolish buildings without assuming any responsibility towards their owners.

This process resembles what is currently underway in Darayya, a city in the Rural Damascus governorate. There, the executive office is carrying out a campaign to demolish buildings it deems at risk of collapse, uninhabitable or a risk to passers-by and neighbours. The demolitions have no legal basis, and no committee is in place to ascertain ownership rights over the properties. 

Lastly, the Damascus governor’s recent announcement is unclear about its threat to impose fines on people whose rubble the governorate will remove. The announcement does not outline any criteria for how the governorate will calculate these fines or how they will be implemented. 

 

Announcement issued by Damascus governor regarding buildings in the Yarmouk Palestinian refugee camp that have fallen or are at risk of either partial or total collapse. Source: The official Al-Baath newspaper. 

Building Collapses, Killing Seven, During Looting in Damascus Suburb

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Seven people were killed on November 2, 2022, when a four-storey building collapsed in the Rural Damascus governorate city of Al-Hajar Al-Aswad. The victims had been there to extract iron from the damaged building’s columns and roof in order to loot and recycle it. This illicit business–the rubble trade–appears to be attracting new companies as it enjoys military and security protection. 

Al-Hajar Al-Aswad is a city and administrative centre of a district within the Rural Damascus governorate, and sits adjacent to the Yarmouk Palestinian refugee camp. Before 2011, Al-Hajar Al-Aswad had about half a million residents and was known as host to the largest number of Golan Heights residents who had been displaced by the June 1967 war. Much of the city consists of informal housing that was never properly zoned or serviced, and which became destinations for low-income Syrians coming to the capital region from other parts of the country. 

The city faced massive wartime damage when the opposition controlled it from 2012 to 2015, and again during the period of Islamic State control in 2015-2018. Regime forces regained control of Al-Hajar Al-Aswad in 2018 after an airstrikes and artillery campaign that destroyed entire neighbourhoods and forcibly displaced any remaining residents. 

November’s collapsed building was located in Al-Jazeereh neighbourhood in the northwestern part of the city. Severe damage to that neighbourhood has prevented residents from returning to it. The Rural Damascus governorate has previously allowed conditional returns for residents of the city’s Tishreen and Al-Thawra neighbourhoods, which are considered safely inhabitable. However, according to The Syria Report’s correspondent in the area, only 150 out of thousands who applied were permitted to return. 

Pro-regime media reported that the head of the local council of Al-Hajjar Al-Aswad had denied there were any casualties in the building collapse. Rather, he stated that the building was uninhabited and there were only material damages. The reason behind his denial could be that Al-Jazeereh neighbourhood is still uninhabited and returns are not allowed, making it difficult to explain any deaths without acknowledging the looting operations. 

However, eyewitnesses confirmed to The Syria Report that the building collapsed while looters were breaking apart the roof to extract iron rebar. A woman and a 16-year-old boy were among the dead, while the rest were members of a family from Al-Jumlan tribe, which hails from East Ghouta. 

A work crew from the Rural Damascus governorate came to the scene of the collapsed building equipped with heavy machinery, spending two days searching the rubble for bodies. Personnel from Al-Hajjar Al-Aswad police station and Military Security branch, which controls the area, prevented people from getting near the site.

One Al-Hajar Al-Aswad resident told The Syria Report that they saw large trucks removing debris extracted from the city’s damaged buildings on more than one occasion. Those trucks passed through security checkpoints without objections, The Syria Report’s correspondent added. 

Regime forces closed off the entrances to Al-Hajjar Al-Aswad with dirt mounds in 2018, though one entrance from Al-Thalatheen Street was kept open. This entrance is overseen by two checkpoints that closely inspect anyone who has been permitted to pass through. 

According to The Syria Report’s correspondent, the looting crews are given security permissions by the army’s Fourth Division. These permissions allow the crews to enter Al-Hajar Al-Aswad for work. The looting crews collect the rubble in certain locations of the city, where rubble dealers then go purchase it. The most important material for sale is iron, which is transported via trucks to furnaces to be recycled.

Syrian Company for Metals and Investments

The Syria Report’s correspondent cited sources in Al-Hajjar Al-Aswad who said some of those trucks belong to the Syrian Company for Metals and Investments, whose articles of association had been approved by the Decision No. 3061/2018 of the Ministry of Internal Trade and Consumer Protection. Under Decision No. 3061, it has the right to import and export all types of metals, iron, plastics and aluminium, as well as sort and transport rubble, trade construction and cladding materials and cement, in addition to other activities. 

The Syria Report could not independently confirm whether the rubble trucks indeed belonged to this company. 

Government Approaches Rubble Recycling as Merely Technical Issue

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In an interview with semi-official news outlet Al-Watan on November 9, Fatima Al-Saleh –the director of Syria’s project to reuse the rubble of buildings in the production of concrete and other building materials – provided information on recycling rubble from a merely technical and economic perspective without relating it to housing, land, and property rights. 

The rubble reuse project is a research endeavour funded by the Scientific Research and Technical Support Fund at the Ministry of Higher Education. It resulted from a 2016 agreement between the Ministry of Higher Education and the State Ministry for Environmental Affairs, which later merged with the Ministry of Local Administration. The project includes 14 researchers from the University of Aleppo and Aleppo city’s Environment Department. It aims to put a scale for classifying the types of stones found in rubble according to their physical and mechanical characteristics. These stones can then go towards various engineering uses. The project also includes designing different concrete, asphalt and construction block mixes and finding any insulation materials using recycled rubble. According to Al-Saleh, so far, the project has succeeded in studying the concrete slabs resulting from reusing bits of rubble for construction blocks. 

However, in reality, only one small experiment has so far taken place, in the Al-Ramouseh area of Aleppo, according to Al-Saleh. The experiment was held with funding from the UNDP, the Syria Trust for Development, the Aleppo City Council and the Spanish NGO Rescate. 

The experiment included transporting, breaking down and sorting rubble to extract possible materials for use in cement construction blocks. The UN Development Fund covered costs, including paying for workers, transport and equipment for breaking down and sorting the rubble. According to official statements, this equipment included 12 tractor-trailers, two trucks, a stone crusher and sorter and 12 cement block pressers. 

In March 2019, the Aleppo City Council told the state-owned news outlet SANA that the experiment was a success, resulting in a project yet to construct 8,000 cement blocks. The council president added at the time that international donors provided the equipment needed for the project on the basis that it be given to the city council afterwards. According to him, municipal workers were being trained to continue the project. 

According to Al-Saleh, this “success” led to a similar new project in Deir-ez-Zor, with international support. She did not provide any further details. 

In 2019, the Rescate NGO supervised rehabilitating 128 apartments in the Al-Shaar neighbourhood of Aleppo, with funding from UNOCHA and implementation by the Diari company. Then in December 2021, Rescate oversaw preparation work on the popular Deir Hafer Souk in rural Aleppo in coordination with the Syria Trust for Development, the Aleppo governorate and the Deir Hafer City Council.

Al-Saleh stressed in her interview that recycling rubble is the best choice, while simply disposing it is costly. According to her, carrying out the recycling work in the same place is optimal, though it is still economically feasible to transport the rubble to other stations for recycling. She added that buildings now at risk of collapse could serve as clean rubble with high payoffs, though she didn’t clarify what she meant by “contaminated” rubble, which she said should be discarded.

 Donors also obtained approval from the Prime Ministry to construct a rubble recycling station in Aleppo city, Al-Saleh said, but added that the project “had been halted.” She did not clarify who had funded or halted the project. 

According to Al-Saleh, a green recovery project will soon be launched. The project will employ people wounded in the war to produce materials from the rubble “with high profitability and economic and social sustainability”. It is unclear what precisely the UNESCWA-supervised project will entail, and the plan does not mention Syria except to say that the Syrian government has committed to fight against desertification.

 Meanwhile, Al-Saleh did not reference the most critical issue regarding the rubble: who owns it and who gets compensation for it. Law No. 3 of 2018, which addresses the removal of rubble resulting from natural or unnatural causes (or from laws stipulating demolition), gave only the owners of demolished properties the right to its monetary value. However, the law left it to local administrative units to determine that value after selling the rubble in public auctions or recycling it and deducing it from demolition costs. 

Have Displaced Residents Returned to Maaret Al-Numan?

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On October 15, pro-regime media reported that 800 displaced families had returned to Maaret Al-Numan, located in the rural Idlib governorate. A ceremony was reportedly held for their return, attended by state and Baath Party officials. But when the ceremony ended, most returning families left the destroyed city, according to a correspondent for The Syria Report in the area, as extensive damage to homes and infrastructure has rendered Maaret Al-Numan uninhabitable. 

Maaret Al-Numan is located in the southern part of Idlib and is the governorate’s second-largest city after its eponymous capital. Opposition forces held the city from 2012-2020. During this time, some residents moved to live in regime-held areas in the nearby coastal governorates and Hama. Then in 2020, the regime waged a military campaign on the southern part of Idlib governorate, regaining control over several major cities such as Saraqeb and Maaret Al-Numan. The campaign caused all remaining residents of Maaret Al-Numan to flee north to displacement camps in opposition-held territory. 

Since then, the pro-Russia 25th Special Mission Forces Division has controlled the emptied-out city, running it as a military zone because of its proximity to lines of contact with rebel forces in the southern Idlib governorate. The division has barred displaced Maaret Al-Numan residents from returning home to the city, even those living in regime-controlled areas of Syria. As in other areas of rural southern Idlib, work crews contracted by the regime forces have looted homes in Maaret Al-Numan, extracting whatever materials they could recycle, such as iron roofing. 

According to The Syria Report’s correspondent, the Idlib governorate had transported displaced Maaret Al-Numan residents who gathered in Al-Assi Square in the city of Hama to their home city to participate in the return ceremony on October 15. Most of the families included Baath Party members and army personnel. 

The Idlib governor and Idlib’s Baath Party branch leader participated in the ceremony, which was meant to open what they called a “reception centre for citizens returning to the city of Maaret Al-Numan.” They said the centre was opened to ease the return of the city’s displaced residents. A Syria Report correspondent reported that one of the centre’s tasks is to grant returnees security approvals after settling their security and military conscription statuses. 

The governor said those wishing to return and live in the city could visit the reception centre and apply for return. He added that the centre will collect data on those people before approving them return. This data, he said, is necessary to secure essential services for returnees. 

During the ceremony on October 15, the governorate utilised heavy machinery to remove rubble and clear public roads under the supervision of the 25th Special Mission Forces Division. However, according to The Syria Report’s correspondent, the day’s rubble removal was merely propaganda to shoot a promotional video and halted immediately afterwards. 

A large-scale return of residents to Maaret Al-Numan does not yet appear possible amid the sheer destruction to the city, including to its water, sewage and electrical networks, as well as the remaining rubble and other debris.

On October 19, a government delegation visited the city. The group included the Minister of Local Administration and Environment and the Minister of Public Works and Housing. Official media reported that the delegation viewed the city’s situation and oversaw the restoration of essential services, rubble removal and repair of damaged roads. The delegation reportedly also identified and estimated the scope of the damages and determined the city’s most urgent needs to facilitate the return of displaced residents to their homes. 

According to official statements, electricity will likely not return to the city before the end of 2022. Schools must also undergo repairs before reopening. The water network needs testing to find any defects, as facilities were damaged and shut down for long periods due to the fighting. 

During the delegation’s visit to Maaret Al-Numan, the governor of Idlib stated that he had sent a memorandum to the council of ministers that included a study on requirements for restoring services such as electricity, water and healthcare to the city. The governor added that the services will be restored once the necessary funding is allocated. 

Officials from Baath Party and Idlib governorate held a meeting on October 9 in Hama alongside Maaret Al-Numan private economic actors, to encourage the latter to participate in efforts to restore the city’s infrastructure and public facilities. Afterwards, the “Committee to Facilitate the Return of Maaret Al-Numan Residents,” formed by the Idlib branch of the Baath Party, worked to collect donations of supplies and money to encourage displaced residents of the city to return home. For example, one businessperson donated a heater for each family that wishes to return to Maaret Al-Numan, while another gave SYP 1 million per family. Another person promised to remove rubble from local homes should the owners return.

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