The situation in Idlib is coming to a head. Doctors from the Region, that is, in Brussels, on the cruel hospital everyday and ask the EU for more help in the solution of the conflict in Syria. Catherine Martens reported.
Little Patient after a suspected poison gas attack in the Syrian province of Idlib
“The children are the big losers.” Dr. Nour is turning the narrow Ring on her Finger. “The big loser” repeated the Doctor, and rises in the third floor of the Paul-Henri Spaak building, from the Elevator in the endlessly long corridors of the house of representatives of the European Parliament. Her gaze sweeps over the Place du Luxembourg. It is your first visit with EU leaders in Brussels.
Dr. Nour, who don’t want to read your first name rather, is a pediatrician and the Syrian city of Idlib works to the West in a children’s hospital. Her husband, also a doctor, to take over in the Al Hospital Abareb currently your layers. As long as the Syrian Doctor on the Europe trip, can’t you take care of your little patient. Here in Brussels you want to reach for your sick more than just Survive from one day to the next.
More and more injured, less and less Doctors In the waiting room of a hospital in Idlib
Medical emergency in Idlib
“We use donor blood directly, without cleaning it,” describes the Doctor, the medical situation on the ground against the DW. “Before the war we had blood banks, so we were able to purify the blood. Now we are hanging the dispenser bag directly to the children without checking it”. The was dangerous. “But,” says Dr. Nour, “we simply have no choice, we must try to save these little people live”.
Together with two colleagues, also Doctors from Idlib, meets Dr. Nour in Brussels, in addition to diplomats and EU parliamentarians. The liberal MEP Marietje Schaake is one of them. From their point of view, the humanitarian situation is getting worse. There is a lack of the most essential things. Too few Doctors, too few drugs, the Dutch politician, the Parliament sits for the ALDE (group of the Alliance of liberals and Democrats for Europe) in the EU.
“Europe must do more,” says the MEP Marietje Schaake
“I am very disappointed that the EU has not taken a politically more active role in resolving the Syria conflict. We have not done enough”, says Schaake of the DW. It is essential that Europe will not let any of the people in Syria to fall. The civilians in and around Idlib would have to know European aid.
Financed the trip of the Syrian doctors to Brussels, using the Syrian-American medical society (SAMS), based in New York. The Non-governmental organization is currently funding half of the costs for the hospitals in Idlib: drugs, equipment, salaries. Since the outbreak of the conflict, the three Doctors draw their salary from SAM’s. According to the Syrian-American Association, approximately 3.5 million civilians are currently living in the Region.
NGO’s cutting the budget
“We are in urgent need of money,” says John Dautzenberg, spokesman for the Syrian-American Institution. The Budget will be for the coming year is significantly smaller. A part of the funds will be repurposed in the new year on other conflicts, such as the Yemen. “For Idlib is dramatic,” complains Dautzenberg. The SAMS Delegation wanted to convince the Europeans that now the Moment had come, by a direct injection of funds to alleviate the suffering of the people there.
The surgeon Mohamad Abrash has been working for 30 years in the Idlib Central Hospital
“The medical care is not devastating, we know where we are to hope,” describes the surgeon Mohamad Abrash, the Situation of the hospitals in the Region of Idlib. For over 30 years, he works in the “Idlib Central Hospital”. Now, Abrash, coming slowly to the end of his strength.
Abrash is a native of Idlib. Long ago, he had brought his family to Turkey, Syria was too dangerous. He himself had stayed. “I’m the only surgeon in the hospital, countless have emigrated, many of them wounded, some killed,” said the 56-Year-old. Medical students were still there, studying in the war, however, has become impossible. Therefore, he attempts now, says Abrash, the young people on site as far as break in, until you can barely operate.
“We can’t let the kids down”
The EU and its member States have provided since the beginning of the conflict financial assistance in the amount of about ten billion euros. These funds will help Refugees inside Syria as well as abroad. As a response to the crisis in Syria, the EU established a regional trust Fund, which has around 1.5 billion euros.
For the MEP Schaake, the EU needs to work even harder than in the past to a “genuine prospect of Peace”. Say concrete progress in the already formulated Regional strategy: the end of the war by an actual political Transition in which all sides are constructively involved, and the rescue of human life through the coverage of humanitarian needs.
It is a matter of Survival: A family in the refugee camp of Al-Ihsan Camp in Syria
Time is of the essence. Doctors like Dr. Nour encounter a day to their limits. Her family now lives in Turkey, directly on the Syrian border. The everyday life of the Doctor is restless. For two days the mother of two small daughters to Idlib traveling, to your 24-hour – service.
Six hours, the controls take time on the Syrian-Turkish border when she goes to work, tells the Doctor. Once again, in the case of the daughters in Turkey, breaks her husband to the service to Syria. Five days and nights to take his shift, then takes back his wife. “Every day is a drain on our forces. But there are hardly any Doctors, we can’t let the children down.”
“We are at war”
From the point of view of the physicians of Idlib, the EU could help with an emergency relief Initiative to your Region. So Europe has reacted in 2016 also to the dramatic deterioration of the humanitarian situation in Aleppo. Those EU direct aid made it possible for humanitarian organisations to save civilians, describes Osama Abuelezz the time commitment.
The General practitioner is working for SAM’s in Aleppo. Two years ago, the doctor was already in Brussels. At the time, he campaigned for Aleppo. “I’m in 2018 for Idlib again here, is tragic. In Aleppo, we have lost two years ago by the attacks of nine hospitals, everything was destroyed. If it hits us in Idlib, we are lost.”
In Germany, the one-time extension of the deportation stop for Syrian refugees runs out in December. And then? Send it back? In addition, the German Prime Minister, argue is currently violently. From a medical point of view, the Syrian Doctors are agreed in Brussels, was to send back a humanitarian disaster. “Every day, we must reject hundreds, because we can’t provide medical services.” With us it is war.”