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  • an estimated 6.6 million Syrian refugees are living outside their country's borders after years of civil war.

  • Many are facing a grim winter in makeshift accommodation around the Middle East and Europe.

  • Turkey has taken in the most more than 3.5 million people.

  • Tiny Lebanon has taken in about a million and Jordan more than 600,000.

  • In Europe, Germany has taken in 1.1 million, but millions more uprooted people remain stuck in Syria itself.

  • Our next report looks at a camp in Idlib province.

  • After heavy rain, the entire camp turns to a muddy bog, and the already terrible conditions get even worse as winter intensifies at the temperature plummets.

  • Half a bus fuels her stove with whatever she can find or afford.

  • If you don't have any money to buy wood to keep the kids warm thing, you just have to buy whatever is cheapest.

  • There's plastic.

  • Rubbish is bad for them, though the Children constantly have Coles and a coughing.

  • Four years ago, a half's daughter, Hom, narrowly escaped death.

  • The stove exploded because they were using bad quality kerosene.

  • Graham, who's now 12, suffered agonizing, disfiguring burns.

  • The family cannot afford expensive reconstructive surgery.

  • 20 kilometers away in the hospital and Bab al Hawa, Dr Al Sheikh says he's treating MAWR and more patients with respiratory illnesses, which spread more easily in winter.

  • The doctors used to send serious cases across the border to Turkey for treatment, but due to coronavirus, that border is now closed.

  • Luckily, Covert has not established itself in the camp yet.

  • He thought the heating methods are unhealthy and directly damage the respiratory system.

  • Damage to People's Airways makes it very easy for them to be infected with coronavirus.

  • Bad heating makes infection far more likely.

  • There's a direct effect, meaning the people here are highly vulnerable.

  • But it will probably be a long time before the Syrian refugees get vaccinated.

  • In the meantime, the Abbas family has much bigger concerns than the coronavirus.

  • My biggest hope is that somehow the situation for my daughter improves so she can play with other Children again, go to school again and just live like other Children.

  • That's my greatest wish.

  • This is the fifth winter the family has spent in a tent in the northwestern Syrian province of Idlib before we're now joined by Bhaiyya streak Um, at the Jordan capital, Amman.

  • She's the Syria response policy and advocacy adviser at the Norwegian Refugee Council.

  • Mystery Comm.

  • Thanks for talking to D.

  • W.

  • Today.

  • The family we just heard about has lived in this camp for five years.

  • How common are stories like theirs?

  • Thank you for receiving me.

  • Hi.

  • Good morning.

  • Their story represents story of many internally displaced Syrians and refugees outside Syria as well.

  • Um, in northern Syria, the province of it like that.

  • We just eso in the herd in the in the reportage.

  • There are today 2.7 million internally displaced people in more than 1000 camps.

  • This is roughly the population of Paris in an area that is not bigger than twice the Luxembourg.

  • So it's very overcrowded.

  • And 80% of these internally displaced people are Children and women.

  • Most of them have been displaced several times because, of course, they flee the bombs.

  • But then the conflict advance and the bumps keeps following them.

  • Some of these families have been displaced more than five times, and in the camps inside Syria today, like you, like you heard already, the situation is that the camps are overcrowded People live in tents.

  • And every time there is a rain the tent is destroyed and they have to.

  • They either lose all the little belongings they still have, or they have to ask for a new tent and then rebuild again.

  • Everything, including sometimes their dignity.

  • Um, two days ago, I was speaking Thio family on.

  • And the dead name is Abu Salih Sulayman.

  • He was telling me that in Syria, families, especially in rural areas, are big.

  • So he for himself have two girls and, uh, two boys story and seven girls.

  • He also take care is off his parents.

  • So Mom and Dad, they all live in two tanks and they have been displaced more than three times in the past five years.

  • I do.

  • He was asking for one thing.

  • He said I need a bathroom because in the camps in north, in Syria, often they didn't They don't even have a bathroom.

  • So he said I don't need money.

  • I don't need food.

  • I don't need water.

  • I just need a bathroom because I need my dignity to be back.

  • So this is how it looks like now or in Syria.

  • You talk about overcrowded camps.

  • It's a cold winter.

  • How prepared are these camps to face?

  • Ah, possible outbreak of the coronavirus.

  • So it's been a year now since the beginning of the outer breaking off the pandemic outbreak that the humanitarian community is trying to prepare for the outbreak inside Syria.

  • Hopefully, the numbers right now are still low, even though they're increasing very much.

  • In the past three months, they have been increasing a lot.

  • We have been trying to build guaranteeing centers to increase the number of beds to increase the number off ventilators for people to be able to survive in case off network of the pandemic.

  • We are also distributing hygiene kids.

  • The humanitarian community is trying as much as possible to protect also humanitarian workers who are in the frontline of our work.

  • So we are trying to protect the employees and the people that are living in the camps as much as we can.

  • We also try to raise funding to increase toe to increase our response.

  • The problem is that the pandemic, the coronavirus and then it has been added to already is a no additional layer to an already very difficult and where they're facing conflict Endpoint.

  • Sorry, Miss freakin.

  • That's all we've got.

  • Time for today.

  • Thank you very much for taking, um, this a couple of minutes to talk to us today.

  • Thank you.

an estimated 6.6 million Syrian refugees are living outside their country's borders after years of civil war.

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