Winter puts Syrian child refugees at risk

Harsh winter conditions, combined with a surge of fighting in north-west Syria in recent months, have put child refugees at risk of life-threatening illness, an aid group is warning.

Flooding in refugee camps in north-west Syria have made for horrible conditions for the youngest inhabitants.Credit:World Vision

New refugees in north-west Syria's overflowing camps are living in open fields or in improvised shelters as winter in the northern hemisphere settles in.

Flooding, damp conditions and insufficient shelter for children raises the risk of pneumonia and tuberculosis, according to World Vision Australia.

"With hundreds of thousands of new people displaced, the camps are at breaking point and there is an urgent shortage of tents, blankets and heating fuel," said World Vision’s Syria Response director Johan Mooij in a statement.

"We have to see an end to the violence which is driving this crisis, as well as an increase in humanitarian support.”

Recent fighting in the city of Idlib has resulted in 60,000 people fleeing their homes for camps in the past few weeks, adding to the 400,000 in the city who have been forced to seek shelter since April.

“We have a simple wish, to live in safety, without fearing loss, displacement and homelessness," said 40-year-old Marwa, a widow who fled conflict last year and lives in a tent with her five-year-old son.

"We do not have the strength to lose more.”

With temperatures dropping below zero at night, and a lack of functioning plumbing, numerous childhood deaths have been reported in recent years. In the last year, 400 children have died in camps or en route to them, according to charity Save the Children.

December floods in Idlib, Northwest Syria. Credit:World Vision

The refugees are in need of blankets, mattresses, as well as winter clothes and heaters, World Vision says.

Women and children holding Australian citizenship live in Al Hawl refugee camp in northern Syria, where there is an "Australia Street" within the camp, The Age and Sydney Morning Herald have reported.

The Australian government has been reluctant to take back wives and children of men involved with the Sunni terrorist and militant network Islamic State. Representatives of Australians in camps are trying to help facilitate a return.

The last stronghold of the Islamic State's so-called caliphate fell in March.

The war in Syria, which began in 2011, has killed half a million people, displaced 6.6 million people internally and sent another 5.6 million searching for safety outside the country, according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.

In October, US President Donald Trump helped set in motion a fresh round of fighting for control of the complex region of north-west Syria, when he declared that he would withdraw American troops.

Trump’s decision effectively gave a green light for Turkey to cross the border into the northern part of Syria in an effort to attack the Kurdish forces based there.

The withdrawal of a sizeable portion of US forces has raised the risk of an IS resurgence.

Turkey considers Kurdish fighters terrorists. Kurds have worked closely with Western forces to counter IS in the region.

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