Thread by @ICRC

Al Hol camp in Syria has grown from 10,000 people to 76,000 in three months.

@FCarboniICRC was there last week. We asked him to tell us about what he saw.

It’s horrifying. Thread.

“While walking a bundle on the ground caught my eye. I thought it was trash. But no: It was blankets intertwined with two babies 4-5 months old. Just left there. People walking all around them.

The Al Hol transit area is an apocalyptic scene. These people spent months under bombardment. You see people dying, screaming kids with open wounds, people who’ve eaten very little for months.

The stench is strong, indescribable.

I saw five kids surround their mother and watch her slowly die.

Hundreds of kids are alone in this hellish place. On their own. There is a huge danger of sexual violence.

What have these kids done? Nothing. They have to flee, but to where? For States who have nationals in Al Hol: you have to remember the best interests of these children.

We have first aid responders in the transit section of Al Hol, but we really need a hospital.

There are kids under 5 with wounds from weapons or burns on their faces, but there's no adequate health care.

Imagine, no adequate health care for 76,000 people fleeing this war.

Besides no health care, access to water is limited. There are not enough latrines. In some section of the camp, people can’t clean themselves. Human waste isn’t being properly managed. Conditions need to be improved ASAP.

We are doing what we can with @syredcrescent:

- 9,000 meals a day to new arrivals
- Trucking in 100,000 litres of clean water a day
- Installed 176 toilets
- Treating hundreds of people with our mobile health units.

But it’s nowhere near enough to help everyone.

We need to avoid the good victim/bad victim approach.

They are associated to the extremist group; they still deserve to be treated humanely.

We don’t have political solutions but it would be a collective defeat if we bend to the pressure to dehumanize the people in Al Hol.”