The detention camps in northeast Syria are not a safe place for anyone, especially the tens of thousands of children forced to call them home, writes Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) Nursing Activity Manager Sarah Gnanaseharam.

Sarah Gnanaseharam is an Australian nurse who shares her experiences working as Nursing Activity Manager in Al Hol camp, northeast Syria.

Since the start of the war in Syria 10 years ago, the lives of Syrian people have been under threat.

In 2011, the situation quickly shifted from localised protests to a full-scale war, leading to a devastating humanitarian situation that persists a decade later. In the course of 10 years, 12 million Syrians—half the pre-conflict population—have been forced to flee the conflict and leave their homes behind, often multiple times, making it the biggest displacement crisis of this century. Many of them are still displaced today. 

While the COVID-19 pandemic dominated headlines in 2020, there was no end to other diseases, emergencies and crises affecting people globally.  
  
Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders (MSF) continued to work alongside health authorities and communities in more than 70 countries. 
  
From assisting Syrians displaced by conflict to continuing essential sexual and reproductive health services for women and girls, these are ten of our biggest responses outside of COVID-19 in 2020. 

As winter approaches in northwest Syria, the already harsh living conditions of more than two million displaced people are becoming even more difficult to manage. People living in camps across the region face the prospect of leaking tents, mud-filled streets and freezing temperatures.  

More than two million people, displaced from their homes due to violence, are now living in overcrowded camps in Idlib governorate. For those living in these camps, the risk of COVID-19 transmission is high and self-isolation is difficult, if not impossible. Regular handwashing is also a challenge, as many people rely on water collected from shared tanks.

Abu Fadel, Hassan, and Iman are three of the 2.7 million displaced people currently living in Idlib in northwest Syria. Idlib, the last rebel stronghold, has become home to a population of people left shattered and impoverished after nine years of war. Abu Fadel, Hassan and Iman recount similar stories of everyday life in what has become an open-air prison.

How are refugees and other displaced people being impacted by, and enduring, the novel coronavirus (COVID-19), and how is Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders (MSF) responding in these communities?

Nine years of conflict in Syria have left the country with a broken health system. As cases of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) rise, Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) teams are navigating this weakened health system, along with testing delays and border closures; all of which are making it extremely difficult to adequately respond to a COVID-19 outbreak in Syria.