Snowstorms are isolating displacement camps in northern and northwestern Syria from nearly everything. Tents packed tightly side by side, blanketed by a layer of snow, turn into cramped spaces that cannot keep families warm.
Residents continue to struggle in camps across northern Syria as temperatures drop and snow piles up inside the sites.
More than a year after the fall of Syria’s former regime, the dream of returning home remains out of reach for many camp residents. Most have lost everything, their homes were destroyed, and a normal life has yet to become possible.
This winter has not arrived as a passing season, but as a direct challenge that deepens the suffering of displaced people.
Searching for a way to keep warm
Early in the morning, Ali al-Asini steps out of his tent at Mazra’at Shuwayhah camp (northern Aleppo countryside, northern Syria), trying to gather any wood or pieces of plastic sheeting he can use to warm his children.
Ali says this winter has been harsher than previous years.
Coal that aid organizations used to provide, and that eased the cold, has disappeared. No regular humanitarian support has arrived this year, Ali told Enab Baladi.
“Children run between tents looking for anything that can burn, and adults try to collect whatever might provide warmth. The harsh winter imposes itself mercilessly on everyone in the camps,” he said.
He added that waterlogged, icy ground makes every step outside the tent a new risk, and bitter cold creeps into every corner, even under the heavy blankets families wrap around themselves.
In previous years, he said, support included a sack or two of coal for each family, which reduced some of the pressure.
This year, it has vanished entirely, leaving families to rely on their own efforts to secure warmth.
Every day in these conditions becomes a new test of patience. Available heating materials are nearly nonexistent, amid a complete halt to regular humanitarian aid.
Scarce wood, cardboard, plastic scraps, and old oil have become the only lifelines for warming tents, despite the smoke they fill the air with and the health risks they bring.
Warmth at the expense of safety
At al-Zaytoun camp (northern Aleppo countryside, northern Syria), Hussam al-Khalaf said children spend hours collecting cardboard and nylon from garbage, while adults burn leaked fuel or old oil to heat their tents.
Hussam said the air inside the tents has grown thick with smoke, making it hard to breathe, and every attempt to keep warm has turned into a daily struggle to survive.
Cold has become part of everyday life in the camp, he added. With no support available, residents rely on any method they can find to keep warm, no matter how dangerous.
At Beer Kaftin camp (northern Idlib countryside, northwestern Syria), Ahmad al-Hussein described children standing for hours in the snow searching for any burnable wood or cardboard, while families try to endure the freezing temperatures by wrapping themselves in blankets and quilts.
Ahmad told Enab Baladi that wet blankets and meltwater from snow are not enough to keep children warm.
The need for safe, effective heating has become urgent, whether through firewood, husks, or any other alternatives, especially after regular humanitarian support stopped this year.
Not much better back home
For families returning from displacement camps in northern Syria to their homes in al-Hawash village in the al-Ghab Plain (Hama countryside, west central Syria), conditions are not much better.
After the destruction it suffered, the village has come to resemble a camp more than a town. Neighborhoods bear witness to piles of rubble and many homes flooded with water.
Ahmad Atiya, a resident of the village, said most houses have been inundated by rainwater. Walls have collapsed, and water has poured inside.
“As for heating, it is nonexistent. Children face the cold, and conditions are extremely difficult. What we are living through is a tragedy in every sense of the word,” he told Enab Baladi.
He added that water reached his home and damaged the walls, making daily life even harder for residents and turning the most basic means of warmth into an almost impossible challenge.
Against this backdrop, civil activist Yusuf Jadaan said priority must be given to urgent support for the camps and to reactivating regular relief programs to ensure essential materials reach families during winter.
A partnership, Jadaan said, between local residents and humanitarian organizations is necessary to set up small storage points inside camps and organize rapid distribution of heating supplies during cold spells.
Such steps would help ensure every family receives support fairly and reduce the daily pressure on families confronting snow and freezing weather.
Snow and cold are no longer just elements of the season, he said, they have become direct adversaries for camp residents.
“Every flame, every step outside a tent, every brief moment of warmth is a daily battle for survival,” the activist said.
For his part, Baraa Babouli, programs director at the Molham Volunteering Team, told Enab Baladi that the team is present in the camps this winter to distribute firewood and heating materials.
He said the team has been running the “Give Warmth” (Khairak Defa) campaign for three years to help cover families’ needs during the cold season.
The campaign includes distributing blankets, firewood, coal, and diesel, and anything that can be used to provide warmth, even in small amounts, to ease the suffering of camp residents during the harsh winter.
Babouli said distribution continues in several areas of northern Syria, including Khirbet al-Joz (Idlib governorate, northwestern Syria), Mayer village (Aleppo governorate, northern Syria), the Widows Camp in Azaz (northern Aleppo countryside, near the Turkish border), and Dana camp (Idlib countryside, northwestern Syria).
Snow worsens the suffering of residents in northern Syria’s camps Enab Baladi.
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